California Business Minute™

Hi, I am Tim Johnson and welcome to the California Business Minute.

In an effort to bolster its economy Palo Alto has been trying to persuade
the business travelers to its community to stay and enjoy the weekend in
the peninsula.

The program dubbed Destination Palo Alto, which included the formulation of
a visitors bureau - was launched in late 2008.  It is focused on encouraging
visitors to remain in town from Friday to Sunday, a time when occupancy rates
for city hotels/motels drop.

Since the deployment of the program occupancy rates have fallen 13% in 2009
from a year earlier.  However, the program has prevented further reductions
and the $240,000 a year program has been already been able to generate $187,000
in new hotel or room and sales taxes according to the city.

The Palo Alto City Council has decided to keep Destination Palo Alto going. At
a recent meeting to decide the program's fate, the council endorsed transferring
the cost of the program to the city's hotels, which will add on a guest fee to
pay for the project. The private sector understands the value of the program
and is committed to the effort at least for another year to ascertain success.

I am Tim Johnson and this has been the California Business Minute.