Visitors Bureau response to Letter to the Editor in theOrcasonian

||| FROM SAN JUAN ISLANDS VISITORS BUREAU BOARD OF DIRECTORS ||| 

The San Juan Islands Visitors Bureau would like to make some corrections and clarifications to Michael Johnson’s June 30 Letter to the Editor. It’s clear that there is still misinformation circulating about the San Juan Islands Destination Management Plan process.

• The San Juan Islands Destination Management Plan (SDMP) was not created, written, promoted nor managed by the San Juan Islands Visitors Bureau (SJIVB). It was compiled and managed by San Juan County staff, with the support of the County’s Lodging Tax Advisory Committee (which funded it), help from consultants, input from the community during a series of public Zoom meetings during Spring of 2022, as well as the addition of related elements from other important County plans.

The San Juan Islands Visitors Bureau (SJIVB) has supported the creation of a responsible, sustainable tourism management plan for the past 10+ years, since Pete Rose was County Manager. The SJIVB supports cooperative, strategic planning between the County, SJIVB members, and other stakeholders to help ensure that tourism is both economically and environmentally sustainable within our island communities. The tourism industry is currently the County’s “bread winner” with an economic impact of $299 million spent in 2023 by visitors on food & beverage, retail, recreation, arts, entertainment, lodging, etc. Plus $10.2 million in taxes to our local government. The SJIVB wrote the 2019 lodging tax grant which funded the initial SDMP process and sat on the steering committee along with other stakeholders. We support the proposed Action Items related to our work within the SDMP, including expanding stewardship messaging and visitor education efforts.

• We’ve been aware that relatively few tourism-related businesses and non-profits commented on the plan, while in fact they support responsible and sustainable tourism. We wanted to be sure the County Council heard from the tourism community before their July 8 meeting, so we wrote a letter that our 200+ business and non-profit members could easily sign on to. This letter of support is not a comment on the SDMP
  nor a re-opening of the comment period we do not control; it was a separate request to gather our members’ support for our tourism marketing and visitor education work. You’ll find a link to it here.
• To find out more about our responsible, sustainable tourism programs, you’ll find a link to our website here, and a link to our 2023 Annual Report here. Our ultimate goal is to cultivate a traveler base that will slow down to “island time,” respect island culture, and appreciate a sense of place.