LTVA Bulletin – May

Welcome to the May edition of the South Shore Bulletin brought to you by the Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority. Our goal is to highlight tourism trends, strategy, initiatives, and programs that increase visitor awareness, support our community and environment, and strengthen our economy.

Lake Tahoe Destination Stewardship Plan Initiative

How do we go about (collectively) fostering the good behavior and stewardship of 15 million visitors, as well as identifying a new economic model that makes public and private partners’ bottom line more sustainable?

A shared vision will reimagine a more sustainable tourism future for Tahoe. The Lake Tahoe Sustainable Recreation and Tourism Partnership has selected the Center for Responsible Travel (CREST) as a consultant to guide the process. CREST is a premier responsible tourism and visitor management firm. CREST will be joined by local economic experts, such as CIVITAS and Carl Ribaudo. A purpose statement has been developed and several lake-wide community workshops, planned for mid-May, will provide a forum for listening and discussion to further the work of the core group. The public workshop dates/times/places can be found by clicking on the button below.

Events Update

The inaugural free Big Blue Music & Brews Festival will take the winter blues away with over 40 artists performing across 15 venues spanning from the downtown corridor at The Shops at the Heavenly Village through the south end of town at Camp Richardson’s lakefront Beacon Bar & Grill, May 27-29.

Visit California CEO Update

The LTVA is always tracking trends to respond to market demand and travel impacts. From Visit California, we have learned that “while early data suggest inflation will discourage travel, consumers are voting differently with their wallets. Travel spending is increasing across all categories despite concerns expressed in surveys.”

Destination Analysts’ March “State of the American Traveler” report revealed some of the negative effects of inflation on travel while also reinforcing that the fundamentals for a 2022 travel season remain largely unchanged. Inflation is causing more than half of those surveyed to rethink their travel budgets; nearly 60% say they will take fewer road trips and keep those trips closer to home if gas prices don’t come down.

Events Center Update

Despite some breezy winds, we were able to “fly some steel” and celebrate a memorable Topping Out Ceremony at the future Tahoe South Events Center with Nevada’s Governor Sisolak. 100 community members had the opportunity to take a tour of the concourse and suite level and signed the final beam before it was raised into place with Governor Sisolak being the first person to sign the beam.

Surfaced Sculpture

We want you to help decide which sculpture we should permanently place at the Tahoe South Events Center. Made from materials brought up to the surface by Clean Up The Lake’s 72-mile scuba clean-up of Lake Tahoe, the future sculpture will educate visitors about what lies below Tahoe’s blue waters and inspire greater environmental stewardship of Lake Tahoe.

Did You Know?

• In April, top origin markets by spend included San Francisco, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Fresno, and Chicago.
• In April, the Tahoe South website saw over 340,000 sessions, up from 230,000 in March, with more than 265,000 new users.
• Tahoe South gained over 28 million paid impressions on Facebook during the month of April with 472,000 post engagements and 169,000 link clicks. Another 495,000 accounts were reached across Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter accounts with unpaid social media posts.

The Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority is powered by the South Lake Tahoe Tourism Improvement District and the Tahoe Douglas Visitors Authority.