New Visitors Bureau director exudes energy and enthusiasm

From Palm Springs to Sonoma|

With his cobalt blue polo shirt and indelible grin, Jonny Westom doesn't look like he's quite moved into the Sonoma Valley yet. But here he sits, in the downstairs conference room beneath the Sonoma Valley Visitors Bureau offices at the Sonoma Plaza, as the newly hired executive director of the hospitality agency that serves both the City of Sonoma and the larger Sonoma Valley.

The 34-year-old SoCal native comes to us from Palm Springs, where he has worked with the Greater Palm Springs Convention & Visitors Bureau for the past ten years in a variety of roles, most recently as Director of Promotions and Special Projects. He started shopping for a new hometown about six months ago, and so far he's impressed the SVVB board members, who seems quite happy to have him on board.

Paul Giusto, who headed the selection committee, described him as 'a high-energy, dynamic professional. The last eight days he's been on board, he's really validated our choice,' he added. 'He's a sharp guy, very mindful and respectful of the traditions of Sonoma Valley.'

'I would only add that the entire SVVB team – board, staff and volunteers – are thrilled with the selection and look forward to welcoming and working with Jonny,' said outgoing director Wendy Peterson.

The Index-Tribune chatted with Westom at the end of his first week on the job about what he sees as the key selling points of Sonoma Valley for the destination-oriented market. (Edited for brevity and clarity.)

Index-Tribune: So how do you find Sonoma, after just a week in town?

Jonny Westom: My first observation being in Sonoma is now nice and friendly the people are here. People are so nice! One of the things I found valuable about Sonoma is the type of culture it breeds – the sense of community, the people who are in tune with the community.

People walk to the park together, in droves. There's block parties, your neighbors know what you're doing, you have gardens in your back yard, you know who the community leaders are.

It's just a whole different way of living. It's a slower pace, I'm used to a much quicker pace – but that allows us to do a lot more thinking about what sort of results we're working for, in terms of the organization but also what we're doing personally.

IT: You have family with you? How are you enjoying town?

JW: I'm married, since November 11 last year. My wife Jamie and found a place in Boyes Hot Springs. Our first experience in Sonoma a couple weeks ago was the Mission. That's when my wife first said, 'This is right.' And she's 90 percent of the decision.

We've had such a warm weekend from everybody in the community so far. Sometimes I wake up saying, Is this real? You-all can't be that nice, all the time!

I really just want to get more in touch with the community, to get more in tune with what else is here, beyond the tourism stuff.

IT: You come to us from Palm Springs. How are the two communities different?

JW: It's a completely different destination as far as what people are looking for in their experiences. The experience here, from what I've witnessed so far, is more wine-region, escaping the day-to-day congestion of the city. It's more about getting in touch with yourself in a clean quiet area.

In Palm Springs, you have much more influence from pool parties, from celebrityism, from major world-class events – you know Palm Springs has the largest music event in the world, Coachella; it has the fifth-largest tennis tournament in the world. The Palm Springs international film festival is growing significantly. Red carpet people include people like Brad Pitt, Ben Affleck, those kinds of people. Leonardo DiCaprio just bought Dinah Shore's home. That sort of thing has brought Palm Springs where it is today.

But at the end of the day, what you think about what the DMO's responsibility is, it's pulling out that attractiveness that makes your destination the unique destination it is, and then taking that to the market and showing people you can experience this, it is a tangible thing you can do.

IT: Explain what 'destination marketing' is, and what's a DMO?

JW: Destination marketing is focusing sales and marketing efforts funded by partners in the destination to attract customers, to brand the destination as a viable place for travel. It's presenting and promoting the aspects that make a destination worth visiting. In Sonoma, we have hotels, restaurants, spas, golf courses, all those different amenities.

There needs to be an organization – a DMO – that tells that story in a marketing way, in an experiential marketing way. Our role is really to deliver what that experience can and should be to potential visitors, domestically and internationally.

IT: There have been several controversial hotel proposals here in the past. Do you think there are enough hotel rooms in Sonoma?

JW: I'm still learning what the occupancy rates are at the various hotels, the ADR (average daily rate) and everything else. We are going to be doing a variety of research programs to better understand who the customer is, where they're staying, how long they're staying, and where the occupancy levels are, where we can increase them to maintain a certain level.

Would I like to see more hotel rooms? I think more hotel rooms would definitely generate more business for the community. It would help create more parking so cars would be off the road and more people in rooms, more people in restaurants.

That's always a factor in a destination marketing organization. We have an adequate number for the amount of traffic I've seen and heard about so far, but there's always room for growth and there's always room for strategic growth.

IT: There's an on-going local controversy over short-term vacation rentals, maybe you've had that in Palm Springs as well.

JW: AirBnB caught all destinations around the country by storm. Nobody was anticipating it. It's new concept, a disruptor – disruption was really neat on the Internet 'cause you could do things. Once it got into our personal space, that's when cities started waking up and saying, Oh, we really need a policy. But a lot of cities were behind the curve on policy making. As long as Sonoma knows they're not the only ones that are battling this – it's a nationwide thing.

In Palm Springs, AirBnB is not an issue yet. Palm Springs is close to the same size as Sonoma Valley is, believe it or not. The difference being, Palm Springs has 450,000 residents, a million in the highest point of the season. So we have more capacity to use AirBnB style vacation rentals.

IT: There's apparently a significant gay travel market in Palm Springs, and in Sonoma Valley as well. Any thoughts on that?

JW: The gay traveler is definitely a traveler that can't go unnoticed. There's a line you have to walk as far as what you deem as 'gay travel' or 'gay-friendly destinations.' I'm not familiar enough with the destination so far to tell you if there are any 'gay-specific' restaurants or hotels or anything like that. I come from Palm Springs, which has a tremendous amount of gay-only hotels, and stores called GayMart. But that's slowly going away – the gay traveler is part of the general community, and they want to be treated like that.

I know there's a lot of gay people or LGBT people in the community so far – a lot of them are community leaders. So just capitalizing on lifestyle, on opportunities, on getaways and everything else, is going to speak to the entire audience – being straight, gay, diverse, men, women, teens – we welcome everybody to the community.

IT: What three things would you like to see emphasized in Sonoma Valley – aside from the wine?

JW: So you only want two? I think what Sonoma Valley has is a competitive advantage with the Plaza, being the hub and the center of what the valley incorporates. I've been to neighboring wine regions, and they don't have the focal point that Sonoma has. With the Plaza park in the middle, we're able to enjoy the breezes and the grass and the natural beauty of the area but also the shops, the shop-owners, the restaurants, the fine dining – the fun dining, the Irish bar if you want, the sports bar if you want. There's something for everybody here, but it's kid-friendly. That's something I think we need to talk about, all the opportunities for kids.

I think the level of affluence in the town, both in what the community holds and what the visitor brings, is another key point to the destination. It's not reserved, but it's kind of got that influence. People are respectful; they have a sense of place. When they come here they are treated as their own. I haven't met too many people or seen too many things that are off-color – people yelling out of their cars, that sort of thing. People are really respectful of our community.

IT: I think that's two.

JW: Last weekend I did the NHRA race at Sonoma Raceway, which I think is a huge amenity to Sonoma. It's tucked away enough off the highway that you wouldn't realize what a massive thing that it is, and I think they really did a good job in the layout and the planning to really keep that integrity of the area or of the Wine region, if you will.

It was a blast. I think they're really doing a great job out there. When we were there Friday night, the gentleman driving the field dragster car beat a national record. 'Sonoma' was plastered on every sports network across the country, it's on every magazine, it's in every website, Sonoma-Sonoma-Sonoma.

I think that's huge branding for the destination. You couldn't pay for the amount of times they said 'Sonoma' across the country

IT: You told me you had friends visiting from out of town. So what are you doing with them this weekend?

JW: We'll probably take them to a winery, see the countryside – it'd be great to take them on a tour of Highway 12 all the way through Santa Rosa, so they get a good feel what Hwy. 101 looks like, what Hwy. 12 looks like.

This is a tourism-driven destination, so we're actually still tourists in town, until we become acclimated to all the off-beats and favorite places. So it's two-fold, I'm able to look at it from a tourist perspective and able to look at it from a DMO perspective. You can see how things match up – how somebody's ideas might sound good on paper but they don't really translate well to the tourists. I'm starting to learn that.

Honestly what I want to do is take a deep breath, absorb what happened this week, and then come back next week with plans.

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