Fifteen million motorists pass through Malibu every year, and every year millions of visitors from the United Kingdom, Japan, China and other corners of the planet arrive in Los Angeles, scratch their heads and wonder where they should go.
Should Malibu encourage them to visit Malibu?
A loose affiliation of city officials and local business owners met at the Chamber of Commerce to discuss ways to attract visitors while at the same time respect the peace and privacy of the citizenry and the environment.
The meeting was the idea of Alan Goldschnider, managing director of the Malibu Beach Inn. Looking around the room, he said: “Here we have a winery, outrigger canoe rides, a spa, shopping…. We could put together a great destination package with what is in this room.”
Carol Martinez of the Los Angeles County and Visitor’s Bureau, who attended the meeting at the invitation of Rebekah Evans, executive director of the Malibu Chamber of Commerce, explained how there was a time when Los Angeles and California just accepted its supremacy as the No. 1 tourist destination in America and around the world.
“Tourists spend a lot of money and generate a lot of sales taxes, and they don’t use many of the city services,” Martinez said. “Now we see, all over the world, there are cities and countries reaching out to them to come and spend money.”
Malibu has not always been one of those places.
“We work with guide book writers from Japan and Germany and all around the world,” Martinez said, “and when I used to call the Malibu Chamber of Commerce and say, ‘I have a writer coming to town and is there someone there who can give the inside scoop?’ The answer would be: ‘No thanks.'”
The purposed of the meeting was to change that attitude.
For two hours, the members of this informal group went around the table, brainstorming ways to bring in more visitors without increasing traffic and congestion. Evans noted places similar to Malibu, like Ojai and the Napa Valley, which had successfully dealt with traffic and congestion issues brought by visitors, and raised the idea of the city establishing a visitor’s center somewhere in the middle of town to support businesses and help visitors.
Robert Mechielson from the sustainable design firm RMA-Studio thought it odd that in his research on visitor interest in Malibu, people wanted to see the Baywatch lifeguard tower and Alice’s Restaurant, but the image that kept reappearing was the red barn for the Malibu Feed Bin.
“We analyzed it and found that the big attraction for Japanese and Chinese, and the Eastern Bloc countries, is the rugged individualism that Malibu represents.”
One of the ideas raised was how to balance businesses catering to residents with those geared toward visitors who spend. Laura Doughty of the Tola Life Spa said, “While residents are my bread and butter, I love the tourist. But a lot of visitors don’t even know we are here, so unless I connect with Alan at Malibu Beach Inn, there is no way to direct visitors to our spa.”
At the end of the meeting there was a discussion of the Malibu “brand” and Janet Laird, representing the Channel Islands Alzheimer’s Institute and the Malibu Chamber Board of Directors, suggested the informal group transform itself into the Malibu Welcome Committee.
Another tourism workshop will take place to further the idea of making Malibu more visitor friendly and visitor serving. Interested parties can contact Rebekah Evans at the Chamber of Commerce by email at revans@malibu.org or by phone at 310.456.6444.