Tour & Travel News

Impress Your Attendees With a Cornucopia of Fresh Food For Your Sacramento Meetings

Wednesday, September 15, 2010 by Terry Selk

Last week, downtown Sacramento hotel, The Citizen Hotel, hosted a reception where it featured several of its local food providers, all regional farms and ranches which the hotel uses in its daily restaurant offerings, and is now made available for meetings or group events.

What made this event different was presentation. There was real engagement. Rather than just putting food out as is the case with many receptions, the actual farmers and ranchers were there displaying and serving up their own food, and chatting with guests about their operations and their products. The attendees had a unique chance to talk directly with the source behind the source, who were dressed in everything from jeans, boots, t-shirts and cowboy hats to nicely pressed slacks and dress shirts. The hotel restaurant's chef extraordinaire, Micheal Touhy, was on hand to offer a warm greeting to all and to share his passion and vision behind his farm to table concepts.

If you thought that accessing farm to table fresh food was just available in restaurants for individual consumption, the Citizen Hotel had a different story to tell. The abundance of incredible local foods in our area is now available for meetings and conventions in Sacramento.

Chef Michael Touhy, Chef for Grange Restaurant in The Citizen Hotel

Kudos to Michael and his team for raising the food bar once again and continuing to put Sacramento top of mind in the food scene.

Sacramento Makes An Impression...

Monday, September 13, 2010 by Terry Selk

on attendees at the 2010 Student and Youth Travel Association annual conference held August 27-31. The professional travel representatives from across the nation and selected international cities consistently commented on the scenic beauty of the city, its cleanliness, impressive array of high quality restaurants within easy walking distance of Sacramento Convention Center and the overall friendliness of residents, both in businesses and on the street. The comments were so plentiful, it almost became embarrassing.

The comments made me take a step back and really evaluate how perfect our city is for meetings and conventions. When you look at the basic infrastructure needs of such a business gathering, Sacramento is a near perfect model based on the following:

-quality airport facility with convenient transcontinental service and close to the city center;

-picturesque river location, tree-lined streets and an abundance of parks making for enjoyable walks, runs and bike rides during breaks in business activities;

-a diverse, modern convention center facility surrounded by a variety of Sacramento area hotels, ranging from high standard full-service hotels to mid-service properties that offer attractive pricing when compared to larger cities;

-an abundance of interesting and low cost attractions;

-a wide range of quality evening entertainment options including pubs, bars, wine lounges, ethnically diverse restaurants and live entertainment;

-friendly, helpful people who are generally glad that visitors are in our city;

Not sure what else a conference organizer or a meeting planner might need to make their events a guaranteed success.

Wildlife and Nature Hidden In Plain Sight of Sacramento

Monday, May 3, 2010 by Terry Selk

Neck and neck with an Egret – that is the situation I found myself on Saturday as I rode my bike across the Yolo Causeway just west of Sacramento. Returning from the City of Davis, I found myself being paced by an egret, flapping his wings in perfect tempo with my pedal rotations. I took the opportunity to enjoy his somewhat effortless flying as I listened to my own labored breathing.

I looked around me and realized I was surrounded on both sides by the Yolo Basin, a natural haven for migratory birds, wildlife and of course, a somewhat endless stretch of agricultural land, filled with acres and acres of rice fields.

The Yolo Basin, a true Sacramento attraction, has many treasures that help make our area unique. The watchable wildlife and education programs for the birdwatcher, naturalist and school groups are fascinating by themselves but one that really stands out in my mind is the Bats and Wine program put on by the Yolo Basin Foundation. Between May and September, nearly 10,000 bats reside under the Yolo Causeway bridge and the Yolo Basin Foundation organizes programs for groups to view them as they emerge in one continuous cloud at dusk to feed on insects.

For kids, they also offer bat education programs at their center while for adults, they work with a local winery to experience some of the local bounty.

The Sacramento region is filled with nature preserves and wildlife refuges, which are perfect for tour groups looking for Sacramento outdoor activities and Sacramento student travel ideas.

The Sweet Sounds of Nature Found in the Heart of Sacramento

Wednesday, April 28, 2010 by Terry Selk

Hoots and honks were pretty much the only noise in the air on my recent ride along the American River Parkway bike trail, which is just five minutes from our downtown office. As the sun was setting and dusk was stirring the native wildlife, sights of deer, turkey, squirrel and bunnies were surrounding me.

If you're looking for fun things to do in Sacramento you can't go wrong with spending some time here. There are some true hidden gems in the Captal, one of them is the amount of trails, trees and scenic beauty in the area.

It had been years since my last journey on the trail and I had forgotten how almost immediately it plunges you into surrounding wild and scenic territory, forbidding manmade noise to penetrate the invisible barrier separating residences, commercial buildings and traffic from intruding. The 32 miles of rural, scenic landscape along the American River is a safe haven from the daily congestion of one’s life.

There were plenty of other humans enjoying the bike trail, either for recreation and fitness purposes or simply as a commute vehicle to get to the University. But even with walkers, joggers, fellow bike riders, etc., there were virtually very few sounds other than that of the water in the nearby rapids or the hooters and the honkers.

Why We Have Two Ears and One Mouth...Listening to Our Customers

Tuesday, April 27, 2010 by Terry Selk

I had lunch with a prospective travel and tourism client last week and we enjoyed a little downtown Sacramento dining, I mentioned that one of the things that make the Sacramento Convention & Visitors Bureau stand out is the level of personal service we extend to our customers and visitors, and more specifically what exactly we do for our travel and tourism clients.

The client seemed intrigued and asked what I meant as he had worked with many CVB's over his 20+ years in the industry. He said he rarely found one that did anything unique. In fact, he had shied away from using CVB's as a resource because he had many of his own contacts and often found working with a CVB to be more cumbersome than he felt was necessary.

I explained how we listen to clients' needs and try and find the best variety of products or services that will make their program successful and their experience memorable. Whether you are looking for Sacramento recreation, Sacramento student travel options, or simply various Sacramento tourist attractions, we go above and beyond and truly cater your trip to your needs. One specific example I shared is that we do not provide contact details of our customers in the leads we generate, unless requested by the client. Why? Because our customers don't want to be contacted by every business, nor do they want to be handed a list of names & businesses for them to sort. They have entrusted us to help them find the services they need and provide them with the best possible solutions. And we value that trust and abide by the customer's wishes.

He was genuinely surprised at this. "Other CVB's send leads out to everyone whether the business is appropriate or not, which results in a flurry of unwanted phone calls, emails, etc.," he said. "Essentially, wasting my time."

Whether we get his business or not remains to be seen, but this discussion with the customer reminded me how the simple effort of listening to the customer and treating customers needs first were somewhat of an anomaly in this modern day of marketing and sales.