Taking tourism to a new level

Danette Goulet

He has big plans for the future of Surf City. But before Doug Traub,

the new president of the Huntington Beach Conference and Visitors Bureau,

can roll up his sleeves and get to work he’s got to clean up the mess he

stepped into.

Since his arrival a month ago, Traub has had to take a hard look at

some of the policies, rules and regulations governing the bureau

following the most recent Dave Garofalo debacle.

The former city councilman and mayor recently returned $11,500 that he

had taken from the nonprofit organization’s account in November and

deposited it into another account of his own, bureau officials said.

Garofalo used a blank check signed by former bureau president Diane

Baker, now in Arizona, the officials said.

“It has been placed back into the original account,” said Steve

Daniel, chairman of the board for the Conference and visitors bureau and

owner of Rocky Mountain Candy Shop on Main Street, who said Traub handled

the situation as it needed to be.

The bureau’s recent troubles stem from the former publisher of the

visitors guide, Garofalo, who pleaded guilty to one felony and 15

misdemeanor conflict of interest charges last month, several of which

involved votes as a council member regarding advertisers in the guide.

The money was transferred back where it belonged after Traub and

others threatened to go to the Orange County District Attorney. Since

that time Traub has been working with the bureau’s board to rewrite the

policies governing the check-writing and other financial areas.

“Any time you start a new job you are placed under a microscope, [the

scandal] just happened to coincide with when I came here,” he said of the

issues he’s faced. “The challenge I got was to take this bureau to next

level. In doing that it is necessary to analyze the infrastructure and

scrutinize the policy and procedures that govern this board.”

But once he’s done with all that, Traub has much bigger fish to fry.

Traub has a journalism degree, a masters degree in international

business marketing, and 10 years experience in marketing, advertising,

public relations and travel tourism -- all of which he plans to put to

use here in Surf City.

“I’m like the conductor of a symphony,” he said, noting that the first

thing to be done was to decide what kind of guests the city is looking

for.

“It’s like trying to decide on what kind of a bird feeder you want to

put in your backyard,” he said. “Do you want to attract cardinals or

humming birds?”

Huntington Beach needs a plan, he contends, and the visitors bureau

should play a large part in the development of that plan.

“There’s no question that the bureau should be playing a role in the

destination development plan and in creating the vision of what this city

should be in terms of a travel destination,” Traub said.

That needs to be a community effort, he said. He will start by

bringing the bureau up to the level he expects from it.

Imagine, a visitors center open seven days a week and staffed by

well-informed volunteers -- a rallying place for the community patriots.

That’s his vision. Or a Web site that is informative and easy to use.

“What we have now is not at all the caliber that this town deserves,”

he said of the Web site. “It should be one place everyone, including the

library, can turn to for information on what’s going on in the

community.”

As for that visitor’s bureau guide that was so controversial, he would

like to expand its circulation from its current 42,000 a month to 250,000

in the next five years.

Another area he’d like to focus on is sales in local stores and

selling business groups on the idea of having their conferences and trade

shows here.

“I think he’s going to take us to the next level,” said Daniel.

Daniel said he has already seen results from Traub, who is hoping to

get a bigger piece of the sales tax revenue than the 1% currently

allotted to the bureau.