Gilroy will soon be known for much more than its garlic if the visitors bureau has its way.
A move to the tourist-heavy Gilroy Premium Outlets, a quest to locate an independent funding source and the implementation of more than two dozen signs showing visitors to the city's lesser known staples will turn the Garlic Capital into a tourist target instead of a regional gateway, said Executive Director Jane Howard of the Gilroy Visitors Bureau.
Coupled with increased funds from the City of Gilroy and rising tax revenues, the city is primed to take advantage of the momentum surrounding it, Howard said.
"The buzz is out there," she said.
Howard said she would know by the end of the month whether the visitors bureau would in fact be moving to the outlets from its Monterey Road location, but added she was "90 percent" confident she would be able to secure a lease.
The visitors bureau would reopen in Building A, Suite No. 6 several doors down from the Forever 21 store and adjacent to the New Balance athletic store, Howard said.
"It's so exciting, I have to contain myself," she said.
Chamber of Commerce President Susan Valenta said the visitors bureau has existed at its current location about 25 years.
Howard said the new digs would be much larger, roughly 1,500 square feet compared with the visitors bureau's current 900-square-foot home just north of the heart of Downtown Gilroy.
"It's going to be much more visible. That's one place that they (visitors) stop. Why not take advantage of that?" Mayor Al Pinheiro said about the possible outlets location. "They could be our best ally to send people downtown, to really send these people out and about after their shopping."
Pinheiro called a move to the outlets "the next best thing" to being awarded a California Welcome Center, which Gilroy was in contention for in January but ultimately lost to Salinas.
Unlike the visitors bureau's current home, the outlet location would allow for additional revenue through retail sales and partnerships with local businesses - a first step toward independent income, Howard said.
The visitors bureau received a boost in funding Monday night when the Gilroy City Council approved a new two-year budget, complete with $300,000 per year for the next years to the visitors bureau.
Howard said she was in the process of setting up agreements with Gilroy Gardens Family Theme Park, the Gilroy Garlic Festival, the Gilroy Arts Alliance and Gilroy's wineries to sell their merchandise at the new location.
"It's about promoting and about having the local area the focus of the visitors bureau," she said. "It's always encouraging to have some store or some operation to have a local presence."
That face-to-face contact - compared with getting information from a brochure or website - can mean longer stays and more money for Gilroy, Howard said.
"If you have the chance to actually speak with someone, they can schedule as much as three more days," Howard said.
Visitors and Gilroy residents themselves could have an easier time navigating the city thanks to a batch of 18 wayfinding signs set to be erected around the city in time for the Gilroy Garlic Festival July 29-31.
The colorful signs - which cost the city $135,000 - will direct residents and visitors to Gilroy's Historic Downtown, car dealerships, wineries, shopping options, Gilroy Gardens, golf courses and the visitors bureau.
"It's going to be the residual that people will find locations and spend more dollars," Valenta said. "We will then be able to start looking at, 'What is the return?' "
Eight additional signs will be implemented at a later time, Howard said, with even more potentially on the way.
Valenta said out-of-towners equating Gilroy with the Garlic Festival have come to appreciate the tucked away wineries and, of course, frequent the easily accessible outlets.
"We have developed a brand," Valenta said. "And people are equating it with that experience. They really enjoy the people here. It's a well-planned community, though there's still more to be done."
The city also has strengthened its appeal to foreign travelers, as more visitors from Canada, Asia and Australia have flocked to the Northern California and Central Coast regions to take in their discounted outlet shopping and wineries, Howard said. She said a group from China would be visiting Gilroy's outlet stores this weekend on its way to an international tourism show in San Francisco.
"We're broadening our international outreach," she said.
The city's new budget projects approximately $12.4 million in sales tax for the current fiscal year - up from a $10.8 prediction a year ago - but also shows an increase in transient occupancy taxes which the city receives from hotels when guests stay overnight.
The city originally planned for roughly $763,000 in those taxes for the current fiscal year, but Howard said that total could be closer to $850,000 once the fiscal year ends June 30 based on recent returns. She said those taxes accounted for $187,701 from January through March, and more should be expected as the summer season kicks off.
The highest transient occupancy tax on record for Gilroy was $972,747 in the 2007-08 fiscal year.
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