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San Diego Convention and Visitors Bureau Collection
MS-0204
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Contributing Institution:
Special Collections & University Archives
Title: San Diego Convention and Visitors Bureau Collection
Creator:
San Diego Convention and Visitors Bureau
Identifier/Call Number: MS-0204
Physical Description:
6.25 Linear Feet
Date (inclusive): 1951-1976
Date (bulk): 1965-1975
Language of Material:
English
.
The collection includes reports, studies, financial records, research files, purchase orders, correspondence, public relations
materials, media campaigns, conferences, speeches, brochures, promotional publications, photographs, and transparencies.
This collection is open for research.
The copyright interests in some of these materials have been transferred to or belong to San Diego State University. The nature
of historical archival and manuscript collections means that copyright status may be difficult or even impossible to determine.
Copyright resides with the creators of materials contained in the collection or their heirs. Requests for permission to publish
must be submitted to the Head of Special Collections, San Diego State University, Library and Information Access. Permissions
is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical item and is not intended to include or imply permission
of the copyright holder(s), which must also be obtained in order to publish. Materials from our collections are made available
for use in research, teaching, and private study. The user must assume full responsibility for any use of the materials, including
but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials.
San Diego Convention and Visitors Bureau
Identification of item, folder title, box number, San Diego Convention and Visitors Bureau Collection, Special Collections
and University Archives, San Diego State University Library.
The San Diego Convention and Visitors Bureau has evolved from three predecessor organizations, the oldest of which dates to
1919. In 1919, the San Diego-California Club, brainchild of San Diego realtor O.W. Cotton, was organized for the express
purpose of persuading people in the prosperous Midwest to live in San Diego. This was because San Diego's growth had come
to a halt, construction was at a standstill, and there were empty houses all over the city.
Though Cotton's plan was to attract permanent residents to San Diego, its natural side effect was to attract visitors and
tourists, as well. The first year's budget for the San Diego-California Club was $150,000, raised entirely from the business
community. Cotton recalls in his memoirs,
The Good Old Days, that business men were desperate for a way out of the area's depression, and the "club" was the only solution that had been
offered to them. Nevertheless, it was a great deal of money to be raised in such a small community with a population of only
85,000.
During the first month of operation, thirteen stenographers were kept busy typing letters promoting San Diego. Letters of
inquiry in response to that promotion mounted as high as 900 a day before the first year was ended. The advertising stressed
the city's climate, as Bureau advertising does today. By 1931, the club was distributing 500,000 pieces of literature a year.
Headquarters were on the Spreckels Building's first floor.
The Club's operating fund dropped to $125,000 in its second year, and dropped again to $75,000 in its third year. In 1925,
the San Diego Chamber of Commerce took the club under its wing, though the club retained its own officers and budget separate
from the Chamber. That same year, on November 25, the club's convention hall in Balboa Park burned to the ground during the
Fireman's Ball.
In 1928, the San Diego Convention Bureau was organized by the Convention Department of the San Diego Chamber of Commerce.
Its purpose was to function as an independent organization to put San Diego in a position to compete for convention business
with other communities.
In 1936, Joseph Dryer formed the San Diego Heaven-on-Earth Club. It never had a formal advertising budget, though Dryer poured
much personal time and money into it. Later this club was absorbed into the San Diego-California Club. In 1946, the San Diego-California
Club, still operating under the auspices of the Chamber of Commerce, changed its name to the San Diego Visitors Bureau. During
1948 and 1949, both the Visitors Bureau and the Convention Bureau received funds from the County of San Diego, so each changed
its name to the San Diego City and San Diego County Visitors and Convention Bureaus.
In the early 1950s the visitor industry began to show strong potential again, and the idea was put forth that all visitor
industry promotional groups would be joined together in one organization. In 1954, the San Diego City and County Visitors
and Convention Bureaus were consolidated into one organization called the San Diego Convention and Tourist Bureaus. Its first
president was Kenneth Nairne, manager of the main office of the Bank of America.
In June of 1965, membership of community business and professional organizations in the Bureau went over 700 for the first
time in its history. By the end of 1966 it stood at 1,051.
The Bureau underwent another small change in1965, when it changed its name to the Convention and Visitors Bureau. San Diego
was the first city to sustain a visitor promotion unit, and it still is considered by most bureau managers across the nation
to be the best organized in the nation.
1977-020
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Organizational Records
Photographs
San Diego Convention and Visitors Bureau--Archives
San Diego Convention and Visitors Bureau--History--20th century--Sources
City promotion--California--San Diego--History--20th century--Sources
Tourist information centers--California--San Diego--History--20th century--Sources
San Diego (Calif.)--Social life and customs--Sources