Tourism in County Ranks 12th in State

Santa Barbara may have the reputation as a tourist mecca, but Ventura County had the tourists, according to a state report released Wednesday.

A study released by the California Office of Tourism shows that Ventura County is ranked 12th in the state, higher than popular Sonoma and Santa Barbara counties, said Russ Smith, executive director of the Ventura Visitors & Convention Bureau.

“We were pretty excited about that,” Smith said. “People are becoming to know Ventura County.”

The study was based on 1991 figures, Smith said. Although statistics are not yet available for 1992, hotel managers in Ventura, Oxnard and Ojai--three primary tourist spots in the county--reported a disappointing summer season last year.

The average occupancy rate at Ventura’s hotels for June, July and August last year was 68%, down slightly from 1991, Smith said.

“We have not particularly suffered, other than just general pangs of the economy,” he said.

Most of the county’s tourists are from Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Diego and San Bernardino counties, Smith said. “We’re great for weekend getaways. The ocean and beach are obviously the main draw. The climate makes it very conducive to travel.”

In 1991, the local tourism industry produced about $718 million, Smith said. It is one of the biggest industries in the county, he said.

Tourism provides about 8,000 jobs countywide, about 1,400 of them in the hotel industry, according to a joint 1988 study by visitors’ bureaus in Ventura and Oxnard.

The city of Ventura leads the county in hotel room rental, Smith said. In 1991, Ventura hotels received about $19.8 million from tourists, he said.