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New ConVis Exec Board Emphasizing Local Hotels

New ConVis Exec Board Emphasizing Local Hotels

SDSU Dean Named as Chairman for 2004-05

BY CONNIE LEWIS

In a vote reflecting a “prevailing sentiment” of change, the newly appointed chairman of the San Diego Convention & Visitors Bureau board nominated hoteliers to fill a majority of seats on its executive committee, said the agency’s spokesman, Sal Giametta.

The nominations of seven hotel-industry professionals to the ConVis board’s 13-member executive committee board by incoming chairwoman Joyce Gattas, dean of the College of Professional Studies and Fine Arts at San Diego State University, were approved by the committee June 23.

They include Ray Warren, vice chairman of the board and general manager of the San Diego Marriott Hotel & Marina; and Joe Craver, second vice chairman and chairman of the board of the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority board and the head of Galaxie Management.

Phil Blair, chief executive officer of Manpower Staffing Services, was elected secretary; Dennis Burks, general manager of SeaWorld San Diego, was elected treasurer.

“What I feel is my primary responsibility as the incoming chair is create and implement a plan that does everything possible to market San Diego as a destination that draws more group meetings and leisure travelers,” Gattas said.

The 39-member board has yet to vote on several recommended bylaw changes, including one by the San Diego Hotel-Motel Association (HMA) and the San Diego Lodging Industry Association (LIA) to pare the board by two members and change its makeup to include a majority of hospitality industry professionals, Giametta said.

But Giametta expects the board will soon vote to have 28 of its 37 members come from within the hospitality industry. Of the 28, 16 are expected to be hotel owners or executives, while 12 will represent other hospitality fields. Nine will likely come from other businesses or community sectors.

Move Applauded

Bill Evans, managing director of the Evans Hotel Group and a prominent member of the San Diego Hotel-Motel Association, has been openly critical of ConVis, saying it has distanced itself from the hotel community it serves.

But he applauded the move to elect mostly hoteliers to the ConVis executive committee.

“It’s great news,” Evans said. “The tourism industry is not against ConVis, it just wants more input on the board.”

ConVis board member Mick Musella, deputy director of the nonprofit San Diego Zoological Society, which operates the San Diego Zoo and San Diego Wild Animal Park, said the anticipated change in the complexion of the board would be a compromise with the two hotel groups.

“LIA and the HMA wanted 50 percent of the board, plus one additional member, to be hoteliers, but that didn’t sit well with the attractions,” Musella said. “People come to San Diego to go to the beach, play golf and take in the attractions, such as SeaWorld, the zoo and Legoland.

“Did you ever hear anybody say they’re coming to San Diego because of a hotel?”

Staff Cutbacks Imminent

Early this week the ConVis board is expected to vote on a spending plan that will include some staff cuts to shore up a $1.5 million budget gap created when city officials proposed a $2.7 million cut in the bureau’s hotel-room tax funding. It was also proposed that the bureau’s job of marketing the San Diego Convention Center be handed over to the Convention Center Corp.

That responsibility was estimated to represent about $1.2 million of ConVis’ 2004 fiscal year budget, Giametta said.

ConVis board Chairman Joe Terzi, a regional vice president for Starwood Hotels, said the proposed cut would likely require eliminating some of the bureau’s 80 or so jobs. He declined to say how many would be cut. But he said notices would be given to affected personnel.

If the City Council approves the proposal to pare ConVis’ $12.5 million city subsidy, which comes from a 10.5 percent hotel room tax, the bureau will be left with a total operating budget of $12.2 million for fiscal 2005.

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