Amended in Senate April 2, 2014

Senate Bill No. 1119

Introduced by Senator Leno

February 19, 2014

An act to amend Section begin delete 13995.1 end delete begin insert 13995.92 end insert of the Government Code, relating to tourism.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

SB 1119, as amended, Leno. California Travel and Tourism Commission.

The California Tourism Marketing Act begin delete sets forth the findings and declarations of the Legislature with regard to travel and tourism in the state generally, including findings regarding state funding of marketing. end delete begin insert authorizes the establishment of the California Travel and Tourism Commission, a nonprofit mutual benefit corporation, for the purpose of promoting tourism in California, as specified. The act provides for an assessment for the passenger rental car industry to be adopted by referendum on a proposed rate set by the commission that will generate funding that, when aggregated with other funding for the commission, is sufficient to fund end insert begin insert approved marketing plan costs of no less than $50,000,000 per fiscal year. end insert

This bill would begin delete make technical, nonsubstantive changes to these provisions. end delete begin insert require that the proposed assessment be set at a rate that will generate no more than 70% of the total funding, that when so aggregated, will be sufficient to fund the approved marketing plan and all administrative costs of no more than $70,000,000 per fiscal year. end insert

Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee:  begin delete no end delete begin insert yes end insert . State-mandated local program: no.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

begin insert

begin insert SECTION 1. end insert   

end insert

begin insert Section 13995.92 of the end insert begin insert Government Code end insert begin insert is
amended to read: end insert

13995.92.  

The proposed assessment for the passenger rental
car industry rate shall be set at a level determined by the
commission that will generate begin insert no more than 70 percent end insert begin insert of the total end insert
funding that will be sufficient, when aggregated together with
other funding for the commission begin delete for an amount sufficient end delete to fund
the approved marketing plan begin insert and all administrative costs end insert of no
begin delete less end delete begin insert more end insert than begin delete fifty end delete begin insert seventy end insert million dollars begin delete ($50,000,000) end delete
begin insert ($70,000,000) end insert per fiscal year.

begin delete

SECTION 1.  

Section 13995.1 of the Government Code is
amended to read:

13995.1.  

The Legislature hereby finds and declares all of the
following:

(a) Tourism is among California’s biggest industries,
contributing over fifty-two billion dollars ($52,000,000,000) to
the state economy and employing nearly 700,000 Californians in
1995.

(b) In order to retain and expand the tourism industry in
California, it is necessary to market travel to and within California.

(c) State funding, while an important component of marketing,
has been unable to generate sufficient funding to meet the threshold
levels necessary to reverse recent losses of California’s tourism
market share.

(d) In regard to the need for a cooperative partnership between
business and industry:

(1) It is in the state’s public interest and vital to the welfare of
the state’s economy to expand the market for, and develop,
California tourism through a cooperative partnership funded in
part by the state that will allow generic promotion and
communication programs.

(2) The mechanism established by this chapter is intended to
play a unique role in advancing the opportunity to expand tourism
in California, and it is intended to increase the opportunity for
tourism to the benefit of the tourism industry and the consumers
of the State of California.

(3) Programs implemented pursuant to this chapter are intended
to complement the marketing activities of individual competitors
within the tourism industry.

(4) While it is recognized that smaller businesses participating
in the tourism market often lack the resources or market power to
conduct these activities on their own, the programs are intended
to be of benefit to businesses of all sizes.

(5) These programs are not intended to, and they do not, impede
the right or ability of individual businesses to conduct activities
designed to increase the tourism market generally or their own
respective shares of the California tourism market, and nothing in
the mechanism established by this chapter shall prevent an
individual business or participant in the industry from seeking to
expand its market through alternative or complementary means,
or both.

(6) (A) An individual business’s own advertising initiatives are
typically designed to increase its share of the California tourism
market rather than to increase or expand the overall size of that
market.

(B) In contrast, generic promotion of California as a tourism
destination is intended and designed to maintain or increase the
overall demand for California tourism and to maintain or increase
the size of that market, often by utilizing promotional methods
and techniques that individual businesses typically are unable, or
have no incentive, to employ.

(7) This chapter creates a mechanism to fund generic promotions
that, pursuant to the required supervision and oversight of the
secretary as specified in this chapter, further specific state
governmental goals, as established by the Legislature, and result
in a promotion program that produces nonideological and
commercial communication that bears the characteristics of, and
is entitled to all the privileges and protections of, government
speech.

(8) The programs implemented pursuant to this chapter shall
be carried out in an effective and coordinated manner that is
designed to strengthen the tourism industry and the state’s economy
as a whole.

(9) Independent evaluation of the effectiveness of the programs
will assist the Legislature in ensuring that the objectives of the
programs as set out in this section are met.

(e) An industry-approved assessment provides a private-sector
financing mechanism that, in partnership with state funding, will
provide the amount of marketing necessary to increase tourism
marketing expenditures by California.

(f) The goal of the assessments is to assess the least amount per
business, in the least intrusive manner, spread across the greatest
practical number of tourism industry segments.

(g) The California Travel and Tourism Commission shall target
an amount determined to be sufficient to market effectively travel
and tourism to and within the state.

(h) In the course of developing its written marketing plan
pursuant to Section 13995.45, the California Travel and Tourism
Commission shall, to the maximum extent feasible, do both of the
following:

(1) Seek advice and recommendations from all segments of
California’s travel and tourism industry and from all geographic
regions of the state.

(2) Harmonize, as appropriate, its marketing plan with the travel
and tourism marketing activities and objectives of the various
industry segments and geographic regions.

(i) The California Travel and Tourism Commission’s marketing
budget shall be spent principally to bring travelers and tourists into
the state. No more than 15 percent of the commission’s assessed
funds in any year shall be spent to promote travel within California,
unless approved by at least two-thirds of the commissioners.

end delete