By Marty Cheek

Morgan Hill has long been a sleeper in California’s multi-billion-dollar tourism industry. Our community has never taken real collective action to grow its economy by dynamically marketing itself to visitors looking for a fun and friendly location to vacation. But that started to change this year with the formation of the Tourism Alliance.
The Tourism Alliance initiative all started in January when John McKay, a Morgan Hill resident and member of the city’s Planning Commission, set up a meeting with Edith Ramirez, Morgan Hill’s Economic Development Manager, to discuss how to better promote Morgan Hill as a tourism destination. He particularly wanted to talk about finding ways to draw more visitors to our excellent wineries in the South Valley region.
Former Morgan Hill Mayor Dennis Kennedy and I were part of the discussion. By the end of that meeting, we decided that our first step was to create a coalition of local leaders representing various organizations who would team together to market Morgan Hill as a destination for tourists.
A loose federation formed with representatives from various organizations including the hotels, the Wineries of Santa Clara Valley, the Morgan Hill Downtown Association, the Morgan Hill Chamber of Commerce, the Downtown PBID, the Morgan Hill Youth Sports Alliance and the city of Morgan Hill.
Led by Ramirez, our group worked to put on a Tourism Forum open to the public and held April 18 at Mama Mia’s Restaurant.
More than 80 people shared their tourism ideas and visions in break-out sessions focused on growing Morgan Hill’s reputation as a vacation destination. Seven committees formed to bring people together to build on the buzz. Areas of interest included:
• Sports Destination
• Agri-Tourism
• Way Finding Signage for Wineries
• Open Space Tourism
• Downtown Activation
• 100 percent Local Wine Tasting Co-Op
• Community Calendar
• Cross Promotions
Morgan Hill has a unique identity as a city. We are a hybrid of Silicon Valley sophistication combined with a vibrant farming-ranching heritage dating back to the Gold Rush era. That hybrid component of our community character will be considered by the Tourism Alliance as it works to develop Morgan Hill’s tourism image with Kathy Schipper of Schipper Design at a “branding session” meeting later this month.
No doubt at that meeting, we’ll discuss our biggest draws in our wine and dine opportunities.
The South Valley region has wineries and restaurants galore ­— and many rival Napa Valley’s. We have many excellent eateries, including Odeum Mediterranean Restaurant which is operated by a one-Michelin Star chef.
Historically, wine was made in the Santa Clara Valley before Napa. For a lack of vision, we never built our brand as a wine country.
Because we failed to promote ourselves to wine-loving travelers, we’ve lost millions of tourism dollars over the years that would have helped our economy and enhanced our quality of life.
Last year, 2.94 million visitors visited Napa Valley, generating $1.4 billion in direct tourism dollars.
More than 75 percent of them came for the dining and wine-tasting opportunities. This shows the opportunity for us if we can brand Morgan Hill as the heart of South Valley’s agri-tourism industry.
We are also a great place for families to visit. Our Outdoor Sports Center is one of the best sports venues in the nation. It attracts 1.3 million visitors a year. Our Aquatics Center also brings families from the Monterey Peninsula as well as the Bay Area. We are blessed with numerous reservoirs, county parks and Henry W. Coe State Park, the second largest state park in California.
These attractions can bring in potentially hundreds of thousands of visitors a year who want to enjoy physical activities including hiking, mountain biking, horseback riding, fishing, boating and camping.
Other areas of tourism opportunities include drawing people to our charming historic downtown.
While there, we can also introduce them to our community’s history at the Villa Mira Monte complex a few blocks north of the downtown district. And Morgan Hill Life plans to help encourage the tourism enterprise by providing an online visitors guide as well as a calendar of events to encourage more people to explore the region and participate in fun activities.
Good leadership and clear vision are coming together to encourage the growth of Morgan Hill as a tourism destination.
The Tourism Alliance is connecting with leaders in San Martin and Gilroy to build a South Valley reputation for quality vacationing opportunities.
For tourism opportunities, Morgan Hill has the package. Now we need the promotion.
Over time, through work by the Tourism Alliance, we’ll get the word out that for vacationers and day-trip travelers, Morgan Hill is a fun and family friendly place to visit.

If you’re interested in learning more about the Tourism Alliance, visit the city of Morgan Hill’s website at www.morgan-hill.ca.gov.