“I want to take a submarine to Catalina. Can you help me?”
While this may seem like a strange question, it’s merely one of the 1.9 million inquiries made at San Diego’s International Visitor Information Center, the official visitor center of the San Diego Convention & Visitors Bureau since its opening in 1985.
Located at Horton Plaza in Downtown, the information center has nine staff members and 35 volunteers. ConVis supplies the center’s annual budget through a transient occupancy tax and membership dues.
Of course, while the center can’t help a traveler with a submarine voyage to Catalina, it can certainly answer many other types of questions.
In fiscal 2000 alone, the visitor center received 59,254 phone calls, 3,714 E-mail inquiries and 46,853 walk-in visits.
Center manager Sue Mason said the most frequently asked phone inquiries have to do with where to stay, special events and major attractions, while walk-in visitors want to know about transportation and tours.
So what is the most popular major attraction?
“It’s a toss-up between the San Diego Zoo and Sea World San Diego,” Mason said.
Fifty percent of travelers come from outside the United States, with the largest numbers arriving from the German-speaking countries. And when they reach San Diego, “they come looking for us,” Mason said.
According to Mason, international travelers have done their research on San Diego, know the attractions they want to see and come to center prepared with questions. “International visitors know where we’re located and know we’re here to assist them,” she said, whereas U.S. residents will just show up.
More international travelers are asking about places to go hiking, which sends them to North County and East County, giving those areas business it might not have received because of location.
Mason said she wants local residents to know the center is here to assist them, too, and not to let the international title scare them from stopping by with questions.
