California Travel Needs Your Help Now!
AB 285 was introduced in February and amended March 16. The California Tourism Recovery Act will implement a new advertising campaign known as the “Calling All Californians” which is a media blitz designed to promote travel and tourism in our state and to get us back on the “places to go” radar with national and international travel managers. This program is being created “for the purpose of reversing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the travel and tourism industry in California, including all of us in surface transportation,” according to CalTravel.org.
California’s travel industry one of the 5 largest economic drivers for the state. Before COVID-19, more than 1.2 million California workers earned their livelihoods in line hospitality. Visitors spent $145 billion annually at California line businesses, generating $12.3 billion in state and local tax revenues. International travelers spent $28.1 billion in California, making travel the state’s largest export.
The coronavirus pandemic has impacted travel and hospitality more than any other industry. More than 1/2 of California’s 1.2 million travel line 15 and hospitality industry workers lost their jobs because of the line 16 pandemic. California lost $78.8 billion in visitor spending in 2020, which is a 54.5 percent decline.
The “Calling All Californians” campaign is in the approval stages now. The state is expected to earmark $45 million spread out over the next three years in advertising and marketing spend all focused on reviving travel within the borders of California. This is a VERY good start and about time!
According to the Bill, California is already behind many other states. For example, New Mexico, with a travel economy 20 times smaller than California’s, is earmarking $25 million for tourism marketing as part of its COVID-19 recovery plan.
Yesterday a letter was produced by the California Travel Association that I’ve added below. It is CRITICAL that ALL OF YOU who need the rebound in California tourism to happen sooner than later sign this and send it into your Senator and/or Assembly Member so we can get the much-needed advertising money from the state to market travel to return. If you don’t know who that person in in your district click here: http://www.legislature.ca.gov/legislators_and_districts.html
LETTER TO BE PUT ON YOUR OWN LETTER HEAD AND SENT IN VIA EMAIL
Dear [Senator or Assembly Member],
As your constituent and a member of the California travel and tourism industry, I am writing in support of a $45 million budget allocation to Visit California for implementing the “Calling All Californians” campaign to jump-start travel when it is safe to do so.
COVID-19 has affected travel and hospitality jobs more than any other industry, confirmed by the report of the Governor’s Task Force on Business and Jobs Recovery. More than half of California’s 1.2 million travel and hospitality industry workers lost their jobs because of the pandemic. Lower-wage workers have disproportionately borne the impact of job losses and the January Budget proposal suggests that these jobs may never return. For every tourism job lost, a ripple effect occurs in the ecosystem that supports the travel industry. Every three travel industry jobs support another two California jobs.
Before the coronavirus, California’s travel industry was one of the largest economic drivers for the state. In 2019, more than 1.2 million California workers earned their livelihoods in hospitality. Visitors spent $145 billion annually at California businesses, generating $12.3 billion in state and local tax revenues (Source: Dean Runyan Associates). International travelers spent $28.1 billion in California, making travel the state’s largest export. However, in 2020, California lost $85.9 billion in visitor spending— a 59.3% decline.
It's critically important to [MY BUSINESS/INSERT BUSINESS/ORGANIZATION] that you please support allocating $45 million to Visit California’s marketing program to accelerate California’s economic recovery.
Funding the rebound of the travel and tourism industry will provide a ripple effect for our communities and will get hundreds of thousands of Californians back to work. This allocation will be an important down payment to help California recover from the dire economic impact of the coronavirus once it is safe to travel again. Please reach out to Emellia Zamani at ezamani@caltravel.org if you have any questions. Your continued commitment to service is needed now more than ever.
Thank you,
[YOUR NAME,
ORGANIZATION]
Here is What You Will Learn at the GCLA Spring Conference
With less than 2 weeks to go, 75% of the conference seats have been reserved. Many more operators are waiting to make sure their schedules permit the time away from businesses to attend. That said, we expect a full house at the FIRST business conference in the travel industry to be hosted LIVE in the state of California since the onset of Covid restrictions 365 days ago.
If you’re trying to weigh out your time and money investment, here is what your payoff is for attending:
1. A one-hour State of the Industry that will detail where the industry stands today and what is happening in real time in all areas of transportation.
2. Incentive / Business travel update on the return of our bread-and-butter revenue stream.
3. Meetings, conventions and live events “come-back” details from top experts.
4. Electric vehicles – a very interesting look into the not-too-distant future of luxury vehicles in California.
5. Luxury and Retail travel trends (including tours) – leisure and luxury travel is up this year so it’s time to chase that side of the business. Experts will tell you how to cash in.
6. Airport status in California – how Covid changes at airports from San Diego to SFO are affecting ground transportation, plus, we will cover what’s happening at small airports and private FOBs.
7. Weddings in California this year – a full report on how Covid has impacted wedding trends. There’s very good news for transportation professionals.
8. Insurance update – a detailed status of California transportation insurance and answers to your most pressing questions. You will also be able to talk one on one with our two insurance sponsors for more personalized questions.
9. Legislation – an update on all pertinent issues impacting ground transportation, presented by the GCLA lobbyist and attorney.
If you are not in the state of California, but farming out jobs to operators who reside in the state, your presence is necessary and we hope you come. California is the nation’s bellwether state on many levels, especially when it comes to travel and tourism trends.
Here is how your register:
www.gcla.show
www.gcla.org – click EVENTS tab
Email us at sara@gcla.org
Call us at 213-349-0190
Time to Call on the Wedding Professionals!
Spring has sprung and it’s time to get your marketing plans penciled out for how your company can benefit from the abundance of weddings on the books this season.
Here’s a few easy tips you can do right now via EMAIL MARKETING:
1. Research wedding professionals – go to https://www.theknot.com/marketplace/wedding-planners/california 2. Craft a PERSONALIZED letter based on things you picked up in your research of each wedding professional and do the same for wedding venues. When you look up a wedding planner you will see a section called ABOUT THIS VENDOR and below their business overview you will find DETAILS and all the way at the bottom are REVIEWS. In these sections you will find opportunity to find a connection.
FOR EXAMPLE:
Dear {first name},
Your amazing reviews on the Knot caught my eye. {CUSTOMIZE HERE} Your glowing reports on your attention to detail along with your expanded service options (looks like you nurture your clients from the minute they get engaged) inspired me to reach out to you today. My company looks for strategic partners like yours. My luxury transportation company is {name}. We are a white glove service provider who also agonizes over every detail for all of our clients. I am interested in speaking with you about a strategic partnership that works for both of us. Please let me know the best time and day to talk and how you prefer to handle business introductions.
Warmly,
{your name; your title; your company} 3.Edit and proof before hitting the SEND button! I get a lot of business emails. If they are grammatically wonky, I tend to form a negative impression of the company and hit delete.
4. Subject lines are the single more important part of your success rate. If you can’t get a wedding planner to read your email, it’s DOA. The first 4 words are your make-or-break on email Subject lines. There must be something compelling, flattering, intriguing, authentic or beneficial.
EXAMPLES:
a) Loved your Knot review b) Your company caught my eye c) We have lots in common d) Wedding success depends on the dependable e) Lightening the load for you, I can help 5. Make sure, too, that you are ready for wedding planners to respond to you. Have a professional Power Point pitch deck created with no more than 10 slides. It’s the best way to quickly move through your company without overwhelming. These easy tips will work and I am excited to hear from you so please keep me posted on your progress!
Count Down to March 30th Begins as We Gear Up to Bring You a Full Conference Spotlighting YOUR Customers
If you are itching to know what your clients are thinking about, our spring conference is a must attend for you. Today, on www.gcla.show we are able to showcase a full day’s agenda from experts in the high net-worth luxury travel and luxury weddings industries, business and incentive travel and bespoke tourism in California. Each week, the GCLA e-news connects you to stories happening in all the vertical markets that involve transportation but our LIVE event will have the pro’s front and center for you to hear and exchange questions with.
I’ve said this a dozen times so what’s one more, we must band together as a community to get our wheels turning again and that means our industry must work in tandem with the buyers of transportation, beginning with the travel advisors and agencies that matter to us most.
The event is $50 for our members and the reason for that extremely low price is we are being helped by sponsors – many of them – who are convinced that the GCLA is in this to win this and rather than let us fend off the recovery blues by ourselves, these fine companies are partnering with us to help us cross the finish line. You may not be in a position to buy services or a new vehicle today, but our sponsors are investing in us for your future.
Now it’s up to you to sync up and show up. Come here first hand how to prepare for your future. Mo Garkani, the GCLA president, will also be presenting a membership stakeholders report. We’ve not had a membership gathering in too long. This presentation followed by my data-driven State of the Industry report, our legislative update will tackle your most pressing concerns. The take home value of this one-day event is immense.
We are restricted to 200 total attendees so we expect to sell the seats out fast. We will be requiring you to sign a Covid-19 waiver on site along with allowing us to take your temperature. The Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach adheres to all state and county Covid-19 protocols.
Email me directly if you need special help with anything at sara@gcla.org.
And Now A Word from Our Airlines….
Just today, the CEO of Delta Air Line, Ed Bastian, gave his viewpoint on the return of flight. “In [my] 20 years dealing with crisis, business travel has always come back stronger than anticipated despite what critics say.” Delta’s president, Glen Hauenstein confirmed the worst is over and said the company believes the pandemic's impact on business travel would be behind them in two years or more. “With a slow and steady build in demand, we are restoring flying to meet our customers’ needs, while staying nimble with our capacity in light of COVID-19.”
Hauenstein concedes that, “While it may be two years or more until we see a normalized revenue environment, by restoring customer confidence in travel and building customer loyalty now, we are creating the foundation for sustainable future revenue growth.”
Let me repeat Mr. Hauenstein’ s key point here. We must RESTORE consumer confidence. But how? By working alongside the airline and hotel efforts. We must be singing from the same sheet of music and since we have a program that is earning praise from the White House to the School House, I urge you to do your research (www.SafeCleanRidecert.com). This is the only frontline training and testing program available to the transportation industry – including school, commuter, luxury, taxi, trucking, military/government, hospitality and corporate fleets. And, the GCLA recently endorsed it which is exciting news in and of itself.
Today I participated on a strategy panel with Scott Calhoun, P.E., PMP, USDOT Policy Advisor to the Secretary of Transportation, Dr. Jonathan Yoder, Lead of the Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) team and COVID-19 Response at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (joined by his team) and two of the SafeCleanRide advisory panelists, Dr. Amesh Adalja, Ph.D., Senior Scholar at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security, Dr. Dennis Harp, Ph.D., Chief Scientist and Vice President of Food Safety and Quality Assurance. They are all extremely enthusiastic about SCR and its mission to help mitigate risks associated with infectious and contagious disease through education.
The objective of our meeting was to review the best path forward in getting the SafeCleanRide program adopted by states and within all markets. The great news for transportation – that includes YOU – is that this program exists. I am personally involved. From the inception of SCR in April, I worked with the Advisory panel and the training/testing company’s teams along with dozens of other health groups and focus groups to bring this program to life and deliver it to you. We now must educate our employees, our affiliates, our customers, our communities, our airports and municipalities. Importantly, I encourage you to expose SCR to your insurers since training and certificated testing programs can help lower business liability expenses.
The airlines and the hotels are making the same efforts here. They too are working on certificated program, albeit they are much more complex and thus taking much longer. That just means transportation is ahead of the curve and we will be that much more prepared as travel continues to come back. Delta's CEO Ed Bastian stated that, “Roughly 90% of its primary corporate customers have business travelers who are traveling in small numbers, but are getting their own sense for what the new travel experiences is." The recovery has begun.
Stay Safe,
Sara Eastwood Richardson
Update Your GCLA Membership - Get Free Directory Listing
Update Your GCLA Membership and Get a FREE Business Directory Listing!
Last week we beat the drums to call attention to our new digital membership directory which will be marketed to business travel managers, meetings/events/wedding planners, DNCs, Concierges, the FBO marketplace and high-net worth lifestyle managers.
It will also be available on the www.gcla.org website for all to see. This week we began to upload hundreds of members data into the portal. If you received an email from us, open it! We sent out access codes for you to go into your business listing and customize it.
To those that want to be a part of our exciting networking tool, the cost to join the GCLA for the balance of 2020 is only $25! So, ditch a few donuts and foo-foo drinks at Starbucks and join us.
This is a membership benefit we are very proud to offer our community. Our association members have pledged to uphold our Code of Standards and Ethics which helps assurances with transportation buyers – your customers.
https://www.gcla.org/code-of-standards-ethics
As I stated last week, operators and vendors listed in our directory will have a competitive advantage in the rebounding market. The GCLA members directory will legitimize our association – and our members – in a time where peace of mind to the consumer really counts.
If you need to update your membership or want to join for the first time, it’s super easy. Go to www.GCLA.org and click the JOIN tab.
This is probably the least expensive and easiest way to get your company out in front of travel buyers and global affiliates so I urge you to make it a priority to sign up as a GCLA member if you haven’t already. If you are a current member, watch your inbox next week for your directory “update” link.
We are in this to win this. I know people are weary. We need Congress to get off their butt and approve the new rounds of recovery money, but that has been delayed until September so they could vacation for the month of August (don’t get me started).
We can’t wait on the government to solve our problems, no, we need to continue to push forward and do all that we can to help ourselves and our industry. The GCLA business directory will help connect people and move the business needle for you so please reach out. We’re here to help you.
Stay safe,
Sara Eastwood-Richardson
GCLA Launches New Membership Directory
Big News!
The Greater California Livery Association Gears Up to Launch its ALL-NEW Digital Members Directory – A Major Step Forward in Connecting the Recovering Marketplace with Our People
California, with its 40 million residents, was the first to decree a state of emergency and order shelter-in-place restrictions and by all accounts, it’s likely to be one of the last to remove them.
With travel, tourism, live events, and all of hospitality at a standstill, which has forced our mobility world to screech to a halt, your team at the GCLA could have saved a lot of money, let everyone in the office go, furlough our lobbyist and suspend board meetings and just taken a hiatus until things got better.
Abandoning our people was never an option. On the contrary we are leading by example and we are on the frontlines and at the front steps of the state Capital on a regular basis. We are in this to win this. Over the course of this shut down, the GCLA has dramatically beefed up our outreach to include this weekly e-newsletter PACKED with useful information to help you navigate these rough waters. The GCLA e-news now has a following of more than 5,000 operators.
Next up, GCLA (your association of operators in CA) is producing a promotional video making the case for booking more for-hire transportation. It’s called the WE MOVE CALIFORNIA campaign and will feature GCLA members and spotlight the associations new online MEMBER DIRECTORY which roles out next week!
Operators and vendors listed in our directory will have a competitive advantage in the rebounding market. Why? Because the GCLA intends to sell the merits of its members to travel buyers and global affiliates – to also tout our new Code of Standards & Ethics that all members must abide by. We believe the traveling public will come looking for such reassurances and will come to the GCLA for the best references.
Check out a quick screen grab to get an idea of what our new digital directory looks like this: https://my.communitybox.co/gcla
The GCLA members directory will legitimize our association – and our members – in a time where peace of mind to the consumer really counts. Furthermore, our digital directory makes it SIMPLE for all of our members to reach out to one another. I can’t tell you how many people contact me to ask who is still operating and who is not. Confusing times likes these make it that much more important for you to show your brand is alive and well!
Here’s the catch…you have to be a current member of the GCLA to be listed in our directory. The good news, the cost of our membership is less than $7 per month for operators to join and only $300 for vendors/suppliers. We established a new membership category as well call the VENUE MEMBER so that destinations like wineries, event centers, restaurants, clubs and resorts can also become a part of our community.
If you need to update your membership or want to join for the first time, it is super easy. Go to www.GCLA.org and click the JOIN tab. Even though our directory will debut next week, it is updated in real time so as soon as your membership is processed, your company will be added to our online members directory (not to mention you will have access to many other membership benefits).
This is probably the least expensive and easiest way to get your company out in front of travel buyers and global affiliates so I urge you to make it a priority to sign up as a GCLA member if you haven’t already. If you are a current member, watch your inbox next week for your directory “update” link.
Stay Safe,
Sara Eastwood-Richardson
Standing By Your California Business Clients
WHY ITS TIME WE STAND BY OUR CLIENTS
IS CALIFORNIA AT IT WITS END?
The counties surrounding San Francisco were the very first in the country to enact the stay-at-home orders. That was March 16, what seems like a million years ago. At that time, the bay area set itself apart as being the model of coordinated action against the spread of Covid-19. Soon the entire state of California followed suit. We did everything we were told to do by our county supervisors and our Governor. This was all supposed to be temporary. In late June we finally began to feel the ease of tensions as slowly we were able to resume some semblance of normalcy.
This week, things spiraled downward as the Governor reinstated shut down orders amid mixed messages. My phones have rung off the hook by demoralized operators wanting to know what is going on! I mean that literally. Conflicting rules from county to county and city to city are leaving business owners outraged. For example, as reported by the Mercury News just yesterday, “Outdoor dining, for weeks allowed in all of the Bay Area, is now banned in Alameda County, while indoor dining can continue in San Mateo County. In Contra Costa County, which has allowed hair salons since mid-June, outdoor diners will have to wear a mask at all times except when they have a fork or spoon in their mouths. Santa Clara County, which last week had to temporarily stop outdoor dining, is now poised to open gyms and barbershops. And in San Francisco, the zoo is reopening next week while the Oakland Zoo less than 30 miles away stays closed, teetering on bankruptcy. For Union City Mayor Carol Dutra-Vernaci, the inconsistency in rules county to county is a reflection of the unequal response nationwide, where some states have refused to issue mask ordinances that have been commonplace in California for weeks. That poses a challenge for city officials in the Bay Area, where people regularly cross county lines to work, shop and visit friends and relatives. I can’t help feeling sometimes that our residents wonder what in the world we’re doing.”
What we can do is this. We can ban together. There are nearly 6,000 transportation operators in California and only a sliver of them are members of the GCLA (which is terrible). If we do not have the consensus of the entire group, we do not have the influence we need to be heard. All of you reading this should make sure you are a current member and if you are, you should be evangelizing our great organization that is trying to fight for you. We are supporting the efforts of YOUR key clients – the meeting planners, the hotels, the travel management industry, California’s tourism industry and more! If you chose to sit this one out, the GCLA just lost a critical voice in a locale that needs a VOTE. If you are not part of our solution, you are part of the problem and the big one facing us is the health of the industries that BUY transportation.
We must stand behind our clients. We must help them recover and resume operations so we in mobility can resume ours. We do that by supporting the GCLA who in turn backs organizations like Visit California!
The icing on the cake is that by the end of August, the GCLA will have developed a promotional video to distribute to all state organizations that book travel – members will get a free copy. And, we will have completed our all-new OPERATOR DIRECTORY (in digital and mobile formats) that we intend to push out to the world of travel, tourism and affiliates.
Stay Tuned, Stay Strong and Stay Safe,
Sara Eastwood-Richardson
Cheer Up Buttercup - We've Got This
Time to Cheer Up
One thing I know to be true about this industry, we have a servants heart. I've never met a group of more caring, conscientious and sensitive people then in the chauffeured transportation community.
In my years with LCT, one of the things that gave me the greatest pleasure was combing though our awards applications and reading the hundreds of stories about their charitable deeds and acts of kindness from operators around the world.
It's time to dust ourselves off. We're chugging back to life, yes, but thanks to the political climate finding our smiles again will be hard fought and hard won. It's a toxic and very negative environment but YOU can change that.
Let's pledge to earmark an hour a day to connect with clients to do nothing more then offer our services and to do something that's helpful. For instance, you can offer a vehicle for their favorite charity. I promise you if your clients businesses don't have a charitable arm, the C level executives at those companies do.
If you don't have access to your clients, reach out to your community. There are local nonprofits everywhere that are shorthanded. At my home we have a traveling nurse and her son staying with us for three months. It's not much, but it's something. If everyone in our industry does one small act of kindness to lift another person up we will restore ourselves at the same time we will heal our economy so much faster. There's a lot to be said for attitude. The happier we are the more optimistic we become. People with optimism MOVE FASTER. We need to be energized to be able to think straight and have the fortitude to work our businesses back. People are getting depressed from all the bad news. Let's change that mood by doing good.
Get out there and help. Offer a hand to your customers, your friends, your community, even a stranger. Watch miracles happen.
Yours truly,
Sara Eastwood-Richardson
Airports and Branding - Are We Falling off the Radar?
Is Our Industry Falling Through the Cracks with Airport Branding?
FlyLAX.com has a beautiful website. There’s a nice tab called GROUND TRANSPORTATION INFORMATION. I clicked on it and here is what travelers see:
“There are several modes of ground transportation that operate at LAX to facilitate the movement of passengers and visitors to and from the airport.”
FlySFO.com is better. At least they actually include our niche on their site. Limos, alias chauffeured services, is bundled with taxi and ride-share under their GROUND TRANSPORTATION tab. However, there is only ONE “limo” company referred by SFO called or Sabet Transportation, better known as Teslaoncall.com. What’s that all about?
San.org, the international airport in San Diego forgot about us too but strangely, they didn’t leave out “walking or biking” under their TO and FROM options tab. Boo!
Making sure that this isn’t just a California thing, I checked out the busiest airport in the country – Atlanta. Much better. They do have a “limousine” exclusive tab. They do have a directory of services. However, the entire block of information is three sentences. I wish I could say the same for LaGuardia. If I had 3.50 reading glasses, I might be able to find a slight mention of chauffeured service, but since I don’t own a set of cheaters that powerful, I have to give New York’s main airport a fail on the industry’s exposure front.
This is an opportunity for our industry – especially now – to work closer with our airports. Help them recognize that our industry carries their First-Class passengers and that those people are major airline users and influencers. By leaving us out of their branding, they are shortchanging their client relationships with their top-tier travelers. At all touch points, our clients should be able to find us on signage, on apps, on websites. This is important. The squeaky wheel gets greased. Let’s take this slow period to do more marketing work with our airports. They need our services for their well-heeled travelers just as much as we need them.
Sara Eastwood-Richardson
Pandemic Insurance Matters
Starting Your Engines – Time to Talk Insurance
Governor Gavin Newsom relaxed some statewide restrictions last week but that was not enough to quell the ever-growing frustration by Californians who want to get back to work. Nearly 30 California counties are threatening to jump ahead of Governor Newsom’s orders and open up. Meanwhile, Los Angeles Mayor Garcetti was forced to walk back a statement his county public health director Barbara Ferrer made on Monday that suggested the Coronavirus lockdown would continue for another three months. In another act of defiance, Tesla CEO Elon Musk reopened his plant in Fremont this week as well.
With more than 4 million people in California on unemployment and a nearly $55 billion budget shortfall for the state, the pressure is on for the state to open the economy faster than leadership is comfortable with.
According to CA-Gov there have been 1.1 million residents tested to date. Of those, just under 7% have tested positive for COVID-9 (73,000 cases). As of May 14th, of those that are carriers of the virus, a little under 4% (3,000) have died due to complications that were exacerbated by the virus. California has 40 million people so all things being equal, the data that CA-Gov has shared means that 7% of our population is likely carriers, or 2.8 million. All lives are precious but at some point, we have to ask ourselves are we winning the battle to only lose the war? I think that is the sentiment being spread all over as more testing and data makes things clearer to all.
What does this mean for us? Cutting through the clutter of all the unknowns, we know these truths. One, clean is the new safe. Sanitation protocols are a must. GCLA is working hard to fine tune a standard for all of you which will happen in the next two weeks. Messaging to the traveler must be aligned with new priorities and new opportunities. I will reiterate what I shared weeks ago. We have an emerging opportunity to recapture lost market share to ride-hail enterprises. We have a chance at procuring more contract work in the “people-mover” space including commuter, non-emergency medical and courtesy shuttle. We know that local business and leisure travel will come back before international travel does. Meeting planners will find a way to reconvene, beginning with selecting destinations that offer fresh air spaces. We are in the sunshine state and as restrictions for meetings relax, expect more open-air gatherings to be the trend which we have an abundance of compared to any other state. We will rise to the occasion, pardon the pun.
If you furloughed your fleets, start getting quotes now for insurance. I say this because you must have insurance to reactivate your CPUC license. While the CPUC announced an expedited plan, which waives the 30-day wait period, you still have to have your vehicles insured before you can get your TCP. You don’t want to leave this to the 11th hour. Give yourself plenty of time to ensure you are on the right side of negotiating your best insurance rate and plan. All things are changing, including insurance.
As always, I am thinking of you in these stressful times. My team is on overdrive to help you recover as fast as possible. Remember to lean on facts and stay clear of all the rhetoric and keep a positive attitude.
Reach out to me any time. We got this!
Sara Eastwood-Richardson