Gilroy selected as one of Canadian Traveler’s Magazine Top American Trips
Published in the May 17 – May 30, 2017 issue of Gilroy Life
In August 2016, Canadian Traveler magazine asked destinations to nominate trips/experiences that fell into one of seven categories:
• Be Inspired
• Road Trips
• Beach Vacations
• Arts, Culture and History
• City Getaways
• Nature/Outdoors
• All-Access Vacations (Hub & Spoke).
The Gilroy Welcome Center Public Relations team met and decided to nominate Gilroy as an All-Access Vacation. The approach was to position Gilroy as the over-night destination for visitors who are looking to make day trips to Santa Cruz, Monterey or San Francisco.
The nomination was selected as the winner with more than 100 detailed submissions read by the editorial team of Canadian Traveler. As a result of Gilroy’s selection, Canadian Traveler will be publishing the story submitted by the Gilroy Welcome Center in the July 2017 issue of the magazine. They will print and deliver 25,000 copies that will be available on all major Canadian newsstands for up to six months. The story will also be promoted by the magazine’s social networks.
Tourism spending by Canadians in Gilroy is the third largest international market — China and Germany being first and second. With this award, the on-going marketing efforts of the Gilroy Welcome Center in the Canadian market continue to pay dividends.
And speaking of the tourism notoriety Gilroy is receiving, on May 10 the Gilroy Welcome Center celebrated Tourism in Gilroy by hosting an open house at the Center. The special event was part of the 34th annual National Travel and Tourism Week and Visit California Tourism Month, which unite communities across California and the U.S. to celebrate what travel means to American jobs, economic growth and personal well-being.
According to the recently released Dean Runyan Associates 2016 report on the impact of California Travel, total direct travel spending in the state was $126.3 billion. This represents a 3.1 percent increase over 2015 in current dollars.
Direct travel generated employment was 1,096,000 in 2016, a 3.4 percent increase over 2015. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the California travel industry was $68.6 billion in 2016. This represents about two and one-half percent of the total GDP of the state.
The California travel industry grew for the seventh consecutive year following the 2007-2009 recession.
