Monterey Destination Marketing Organization Aims Internationally - Central Coast News KION/KCBA

MONTEREY, Calif. - The Monterey County Convention and Visitors Bureau met to launch its very first published business plan. In it, new initiatives to continue to bring more tourists to Monterey County.

"What we're doing is more marketing, more communication and more direct sales. We're able to target a wider variety of types of businesses than we were before," said CEO Tammy Blount.

This is thanks to an increase in the tourism improvement district which is an assessment collected by occupied hotels. Hotels collected $1.4 million from tourist which put the bureau at a competitive playing field against neighboring tourist hot spots like Napa or Sonoma. With more competitive funding the destination marketing organization is able to partner with international companies like Visit California and Brand USA to attract tourist from China and Canada.

"We're excited. We haven't been able to go into international markets before. We just haven't had the budget before and now we do," said Blount.

The bureau will also now venture into sports marketing which helps local sporting events like this past weekend's Moto GP. "We are going to fill hotels, fill restaurants. Retail stores are going to be happy, Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca is going to be happy. Everybody is going to be happy," said Mazda Raceway CEO Jill Campbell.