Ventura County Lodging Association Bids Farewell to a Founding Member

July 11, 2012 - PRLog -- Ventura County, Calif.--The Ventura County Lodging Association (VCLA) is losing one of its founding members, Jim Luttjohann, who has accepted a position as the director of the Convention & Visitors Bureau for Santa Fe, New Mexico. Luttjohann had been the Ventura Visitors & Convention Bureau executive director since 2004.

   "Jim was a leader and visionary in seeing the value of forming a lodging association here in Ventura County," says Victor Dollar, general manager of the Four Points by Sheraton Ventura Harbor Resort and chair of VCLA. "His expertise and enthusiasm for the organization helped to lead to its successful launch."

   VCLA was created in 2011 as a nonprofit Tourism Business Improvement District comprised of lodging facilities and destination marketing organizations in Camarillo, Oxnard and Ventura. Its 61 members include hotels, motels, bed and breakfasts, RV resorts, and the Camarillo Chamber of Commerce, Oxnard Convention & Visitors Bureau and Ventura Visitors & Convention Bureau. The VCLA seeks to attract overnight business and leisure visitors to the region through its marketing campaign, VenturaCountyWest, Inspiring Choices.

   "Through his innovative marketing of the Ventura Visitors & Convention Bureau, Jim has been a fantastic booster for the City of Ventura and all we have to offer tourists from around the world," says Jeffrey Lambert, community development director of the City of Ventura. "As a founding member of the Ventura County Lodging Association, he was instrumental in leveraging VCLA dollars locally that are already producing positive results. Jim's collaborative partnership and tourism successes will be missed."
   "With $100 million in direct hotel-related sales in Camarillo, Oxnard and Ventura during the last 12 months and more than 8,200 hotel-related jobs in the county at large, hospitality is an important sector of Ventura County's economy," says Gary Wartik, VCLA director. "VCLA’s advertising program designed to attract hotel guests from other areas of Southern California is already contributing to stabilizing the local workforce within the hospitality industry. Jim recognized the value of VCLA's effort to grow the region’s hospitality industry, and the important role the industry plays in our local economy."

   For more information about the Ventura County Lodging Association, go to www.VenturaCountyWest.com or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/VenturaCountyWest .