Frequently Asked Questions about Visit Huntington Beach

Who is Visit Huntington Beach (VHB)?

VHB, formed in 1989, is the official destination marketing organization (commonly referred to as a DMO) for Huntington Beach, California. It is a private, non-profit 501(c)(6) organization.

VHB is an economic development organization that reinvests visitor-generated assessments from Huntington Beach lodging properties to create more local jobs, increase visitor spending at local businesses and increase overnight visitor stays in our local hotels. All these results lead to an increase in tax revenues for local government.

Visit Huntington Beach consists of a team of dedicated staff members and board members working toward a more successful Huntington Beach. A non-membership organization, its partners consist of the City of Huntington Beach, all Huntington Beach lodging properties and visitor-serving businesses, and visitor-serving organizations in Huntington Beach. For questions regarding partnership, please view our Partner Benefits section or contact a staff member.

Visit Huntington Beach works collaboratively with many organizations within the community, but is not involved in their operations or decision-making processes. For more information on those organizations and their work, please visit their organization websites below:

City of Huntington Beach

Government services; parking permits; City Council meetings; policies; public safety & law enforcement.

Downtown Huntington Beach Business Improvement District

Represents over 250 downtown businesses that provide visitors with dining, shopping, and retail experiences
Surf City Nights (the only certified farmers’ market in HB)
Surf City Artisan Fair

Huntington Beach Chamber of Commerce

With a membership of more than 600 Huntington Beach businesses, the Chamber works to build a stronger Huntington Beach business community.

What is VHB’s Mission?
VHB supports and advocates for the economic vitality and quality of life for our Huntington Beach community through inspirational destination marketing and brand management.

What is VHB’s legal organizational designation?
VHB is a private, non-profit 501(c)(6) organization. It is not a department of the City of Huntington Beach.

Why does VHB use the trademark Surf City USA^®?
In 2004, Visit Huntington Beach registered the trademark Surf City USA^® with the USPTO, and was officially was approved in 2007. Inspired by the nickname that was popularized by the 1963 song "Surf City" by Jan and Dean, Surf City USA^® embodies the Huntington Beach brand as the quintessential Southern California beach-town, with more than a century of surf culture and history, 10 miles of wide-open beaches, consistent waves throughout the year, and the iconic Huntington Beach Pier.

For those interested in licensing the Surf City USA^®trademark, please contact VHB at (714) 969-3492 or info@surfcityusa.com.

Do local residents pay taxes that fund Visit Huntington Beach?
No.

What is the benefit of tourism to Huntington Beach residents?
Combined state and local tax revenues, excluding Transient Occupancy Tax revenue, generated by visitors helped to offset the average Huntington Beach resident's tax burden by $565 per household in 2017. Tourism also supports local businesses and attracts signature events to the destination, allowing residents to enjoy a wider range of restaurants, retail, and activities close to home.

Is VHB an accredited destination marketing organization (DMO)?
VHB has been fully accredited by Destinations International (DI), the world's leading trade association for DMOs, since 2012. VHB renewed its accreditation in 2022 and received the highest possible recognition for a destination organization – "Accreditation with Distinction," indicating that the organization exceeded the minimum requirements for accreditation with over 100 mandatory and voluntary standards that span a variety of performance areas. With over 200 destination organizations who have obtained DMAP recognition, fewer than 10% earn “Accreditation with Distinction”.

How did VHB get accredited?
To become accredited, a DMO must demonstrate compliance with more than 100 performance standards in the areas of governance, strategic planning, stakeholder engagement/advocacy, finance, human resources, management and operations, technology, research and marketing intelligence, brand management, marketing, communications, sales and services, membership/partnership, visitor services, and destination development. Accreditation standards are set by an independent panel of industry veterans representing a diverse selection of destination organizations. Standards are regularly revisited and revised to reflect the evolution of best practices in the industry and accredited organizations are required to re-apply every five years. Completing the renewal process typically takes 9-12 months.

What are VHB’s Core Values?

VHB embodies a community-focused spirit of service that is proactive and strategic.

How many full-time employees does VHB currently employ?
VHB currently has 16 full-time employees.

Is VHB’s current staffing level high or low when compared to other DMOs and industry standards?
The average number of full-time employees for DMOs in VHB’s annual budget category ($5 – $9.9 million) is 24 FTEs (Destination Organization Performance Reporting, DI). VHB's 17.6 FTE's is 27% less than DMOs in the same budget category.

Have any of VHB staff achieved higher professional certification?
There are less than 400 Certified Destination Marketing Executives (CDME) in the world. Three of VHB’s 17 full-time team members are CDMEs. DI’s highly respected 2-3 year educational CDME program offered through Purdue University is the accounting world’s equivalent of earning a C.P.A., but for DMO professionals.

How is VHB funded?
VHB’s funding does not come from taxes paid by local residents. Funding is derived through a Tourism Business Improvement District (TBID) self-assessment paid by Huntington Beach lodging properties who collect the assessment from overnight hotel guests choosing to stay in one of Huntington Beach’s 21 hotels (2,300 total available rooms).

What is the Tourism Business Improvement District (TBID)?
The TBID was originally formed in 2002 by Huntington Beach hotel properties and approved by City Council. All lodging properties within the TBID's boundaries (the city limits of Huntington Beach) agreed to place a self-assessment on overnight stays to help fund VHB's efforts to market and sell the destination to visitors. Currently, the TBID consists of 21 local hoteliers and 225 licensed vacation rentals. The TBID assessment is paid by visitors who stay in Huntington Beach lodging properties. TBID assessment revenues provide a more dependable, long-term, sustainable revenue source to market Surf City USA^® globally without any tax burden on local residents. Huntington Beach’s overnight hotel guests pay a 4% assessment fee for each occupied room/vacation rental per night during their stay.

How much TBID assessment revenue is dedicated to VHB?
The current TBID management district plan will go into effect on July 1, 2024 with a 6% self-assessment rate for all Huntington Beach lodging properties that would be used to fund VHB's program of work. Guests staying at these properties pay this rate upon checkout. In 2024, this plan is expected to result in annual TBID revenues of approximately $10 million, with 90% of the assessment going toward sales and marketing efforts and the remaining 10% going toward Tourism Enhanced Programs that will mutually benefit visitors and residents.

How much is VHB’s annual revenue?
In FY 2022-2023, VHB's annual revenue was approximately $6 million dollars, all paid by Huntington Beach’s overnight hotel visitors.

What is Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) and how is it used?
Huntington Beach’s overnight lodging guests pay a 10% TOT per room per night. The City of Huntington Beach retains 100% of all TOT revenues as of February 1, 2019. (Previously, VHB had received 10% of TOT visitor tax revenues for destination marketing). These revenues support the City's general fund and help pay for City services including police, fire, marine safety, beach maintenance, parks, and libraries. Note: City governments around the country retain an average of 50% of TOT revenues, with the remainder invested in destination marketing with the city's DMO. The City of HB retains 100%.

How much TOT revenue is generated each year?
In FY 2022-2023, total TOT revenue collections were approximately $16 million. Since 1996, over $200 million in TOT revenues have been collected by the City of Huntington Beach.

How much TOT revenue is dedicated to VHB?
0%. As of February 1, 2019, VHB does not receive any TOT funds.

What does VHB do with TBID assessment dollars?
TBID assessments fund vital, important VHB program of work areas, which greatly benefit our community and overall visitor experience:

All metrics below is a reflection of the 2022-2023 fiscal year (July 1 - June 30).

Overall brand marketing for Huntington Beach, Surf City USA.
Traditional advertising in key visitor markets with over 1 billion advertising impressions.
Digital and social media programs, including ownership and management of surfcityusa.com (relaunched website with new design in July 2022), with over 1.3 million annual website sessions, 2.1 million pages viewed, 109,550 Instagram followers; 84,342 Facebook fans; 15,950 Twitter followers, and 3,007 LinkedIn followers; 2,052 Pinterest followers; and 914 followers to the recently created TikTok account.
Public relations, which generated 1,900 Barcelona Principles score.
- The Barcelona Principles refers to the Barcelona Declaration of Research Principles, a set of seven voluntary guidelines established by the public relations (PR) industry to measure the efficiency of PR campaigns. They were the first overreaching framework for effective public relations and communications measurement.
Destination sales (conventions, meetings, groups), which last year was responsible for sourcing over 900 leads, of which over 50,000 hotel room nights were booked into local hotels.
High demand publications such as HB’s official Visitors Guide, Visitor Map and Historical Walking Tour brochures.
International and domestic travel trade programs targeting leisure travelers via trade shows generating 15 in-destination familiarization tour visitors, and sales outreach to 733 tour operators and travel agents in 3 target countries.
HB Film Commission that works closely with the City’s Economic Development office to help generate 111 film permits.
Surf City USA's Nighttime Ambassador Program that serves visitors and businesses on weekends and during special events year-round.
Visitor Information Kiosk at the Pier, which is open seven days a week, served over 53,000 walk-up visitors.
Welcome Center at the Huntington Beach International Surfing Museum, which is open six day a week.
Free monthly partner information meetings designed to provide HB’s businesses with actionable steps to increase visitor generated expenditures for local businesses.

How many total annual visitors experience Huntington Beach?
The definition of a “visitor” to any destination can vary. The sometimes-quoted annual number of between 11-15 million HB visitors is loosely based on the number of estimated cars parking at HB’s beach parking lots. This number includes local residents. For example, a local HB resident who has a beach pass and parks at the beach 20 times a year to catch some morning waves is included in this informal tally as 20 visitors.

VHB commissions a more robust visitor research study every several years, designed to provide a deeper and more scientifically significant analysis of HB visitors. In these studies, HB visitors are defined as “anyone who lives outside of Orange County and who has visited Huntington Beach for the day or stayed there overnight.”

Non-Orange County resident visitors to Huntington Beach:

2022: 2.26 million
2021: 2.11 million
2020: 1.69 million
2019: 2.78 million
2018: 2.61 million
2017: 3.5 million
2016: 3.34 million
2015: 3.22 million
2014: 3.18 million

Source: Lauren Schlau Consulting, Inc.; CIC Research, Inc.; Tourism Economics. May 2023.

Which visitors are being targeted by VHB’s integrated sales and marketing plan?
Non-Orange County residents who desire overnight hotel accommodations in Huntington Beach (including Sunset Beach and all other non-resort hotel property locations) are the primary target audience of VHB’s very detailed and measurable sales and marketing efforts. VHB secondarily promotes in destination shopping, dining, tour and attraction experiences to help extend length of stay, repeat visitation and day visitation.

Who are these visitors?
Here are some highlights from the most recent comprehensive visitor profile study:

Median age is 39 years
Household income is $105,000
Average number of nights stayed in Orange County is 3.77
Average size of visitor group is 3 people
About three out of four visitors (75%) are day visitors
Nearly 25% have overnight accommodations in HB, with 17.5% reporting overnight hotel stays, 2.4% other paid lodging, and 5% reporting private home accommodations and a very small percentage staying in campgrounds
69% of visitors drove to HB, 9% used ride share (Uber/Lyft), while about 21% traveled by air
On average, HB visitors spent $395 per group (or $133 per capita), per trip in Orange County

Where are these visitors from?
93% are domestic US visitors with top geo markets of:

Southern California
San Francisco and the Bay area
Phoenix/ Scottdale in Arizona
Dallas/ Houston/ Austin in Texas
Seattle/Portland/ Vancouver in the Pacific Northwest
Utah
Las Vegas in Nevada
Denver in Colorado
Chicago in Illinois

7% are international visitors with top geo markets of:

Canada
UK
Mexico
China/ Japan/ South Korea
Middle East
Australia

What is the economic impact on the local Huntington Beach economy by non-Orange County resident visitor spending?
The last economic impact study of non-Orange County residents visiting HB was completed in 2022, assessing the economic impact of 2022 visitors:

Visitor spending: $506.3 million in direct spending, averaging $1.38 million a day.
Estimated 4,146 jobs supported by visitor spending, or 1-in-25 jobs in the City.
Over $17.3 million in total projected tax revenue from visitor spending contributed to the City of Huntington Beach's general fund.

Source: Lauren Schlau Consulting, Inc.; CIC Research, Inc. May 2023.

How can I view a copy of VHB's FY22-23 Annual Highlights?

For more information, see VHB’s FY22-23 Annual Highlights.