Friends,
I hope that this message finds you well and that you are staying safe and healthy during these turbulent times! I wanted to take this opportunity to check-in and give you an update on what is happening in San Diego.
San Diego takes COVID-19 very seriously and we are working with our hospitality community to ensure that all visitors and residents are safe and protected. Our Safe Reopening Plan is being adopted by tourism businesses across the region and we’ve also released a Safe Travel Pledge that we ask guests to follow when they are in town. You can feel confident in recommending San Diego as a safe and enjoyable destination to send your clients to when they are ready to travel.
San Diego remains the beautiful, open and relaxing destination that it has always been! Now more than ever, visitors can enjoy our 70 miles of beautiful coastline, plentiful outdoor activities such as hiking, boating and surfing while remaining socially distant.
Additionally, the San Diego Zoo, San Diego Zoo Safari Park and USS Midway are all open at a limited capacity to visitors wearing masks and following safety protocols. They’ve all done a phenomenal job of instituting safe, easy to follow programs on-site to protect the safety of their guests and staff members while retaining the fun and excitement that make them world-class attractions.
The State of California has temporarily restricted indoor dining; however, San Diego’s year-round beautiful weather has already provided us with a vibrant outdoor dining scene. To further provide outdoor dining options during this time, in prime dining neighborhoods like the Gaslamp Quarter and Little Italy, streets are being closed to allow restaurants to expand their socially distanced seating areas.
Like many of you, our own organization has not been immune to the financial hardships of this pandemic. Unfortunately, this has resulted in the layoff of two team members from our Tourism Development team—Phil Hannes and Riki Suzuki. If you need assistance in the future, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me for any sales or marketing needs or to Sheri Crusberg for any administrative needs.
Should you be using this time to increase your destination knowledge, I encourage you to take our San Diego Specialist program which is full of great information that you can pass along to your customers and help ensure that they get a more complete “San Diego experience” when they are visiting.
In these challenging times, I know it can sometimes be difficult to see the brighter side of life—but know that Happiness is Calling You Back to San Diego. We’re here to make the lives of both you and your clients a little brighter!
Wishing you, your family and co-workers health and happiness.
Best,
Benjamin Eastman
Director of Travel Trade Development
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