Chamber of Commerce & Visitors Bureau Introduces New Web Site

Spring break has gone, and summer looms as the next big tourist season. This year, Redondo Beach is armed with a new weapon: a newly improved Redondo Beach Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Bureau web site at http://www.redondochamber.org

Marna Smeltzer, president and CEO of the Redondo Beach Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Bureau, said everybody is holding their breath this summer because no one knows what the economy will do next and if people will travel.

The chamber of commerce believes that "sophisticated travelers" — who read and also spend money — visit at least one web site before they travel, and research shows that it's often a local chamber of commerce web site.

Since the tourism bureau and the chamber of commerce are combined in Redondo Beach, the chamber decided to give its web site a makeover with tourism particularly in mind.

Along with the new web site comes a new slogan: "More to Sea."

Deborah Shepard, director of sales and marketing at the Crowne Plaza Redondo Beach and Marina Hotel, explains the slogan this way: if a friend is coming to visit a Redondo Beach resident she needs to know there's more to see; when a shopper comes to a Redondo Beach business he needs to know there's more to see; when a traveler stays in a Redondo Beach hotel room she needs to know there's more to see.

Smeltzer said using the play on words is a reminder of what the city offers.

"Real seaside adventures," she said. "You can come to Redondo Beach and you can have an adventure where your 2-year-old chases seagulls, or you sit on the beach reading, kayaking, wave running, shopping: Whatever you want [your adventure] to be."

Those adventures are clicks away on the new web site.

This is all part of re-branding Redondo Beach, a concept that started four years ago. It aims to give the community a consistent message with one goal in mind — building a strong local economy, especially in light of the weak national economy.

Harmony Works, a Redondo Beach business that specializes in selling recycled gifts in Riviera Village, suffered its worst year of its 16-year history in 2009 according to owner Mike Morales. Morales said people quickly cut back on gift giving as they tightened their purses in the middle of the recession.

However, he believes that things are definitely improving. Whereas shoppers looked and left in 2009, today they're more likely to look and buy.

"Since October, November, there hasn't been a tremendous increase in business, but people's approach to shopping and spending is less hesitant," he said.

Morales, sees the chamber's new web site as a way to attract tourists looking for "more to sea" in terms of shopping.

He's especially excited about a new feature that allows businesses to tap into the chamber's social media network. Any chamber member would be able to use a tool called "Beach Link" to send out information to promote their business, like a press release or new menu.

Beyond Beach Link, the chamber is developing an application that will use a mobile device to deliver coupons for Redondo Beach businesses.

Shepard, who is also the chair of the chamber's Visitors Bureau Center, says the mobile app and Beach Link are part of a concerted effort to be more tech savvy.

"I think Redondo Beach is still catching up, but we're doing our darndest at this point," she said. 

While a search for Redondo Beach businesses on Yelp turns up more than 25,000 results, the official City of Redondo Beach Facebook page currently has 454 fans, and only 429 people are following its Twitter feed.

"People called us 'the best kept secret," Shepard said. "We don't want it to be a secret."

The chamber plans to discuss more about the new web site at the Economic Summit on April 29 from 7:15 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center.