Seaside Visitors Bureau.

Feels out-of-step to be writing a tourism column in the current climate. There are so many important things going on in the world and in our country that demand attention. I hope you’re doing OK out there.

Tourism is important. Having tourists support our economy is important. Having employers support our employees is important. Having workers support their families is important. Having neighbors support neighbors is important. Each step along the staircase of our civilization is important.

John Muir wrote “When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.” I’ve been thinking about that quote quite a lot lately, having first encountered it more than a decade ago upon being married in a San Francisco church that had a direct relationship with the man himself. Everything is connected.

My piece in all this is ensuring Seaside, as a unique Pacific Northwest destination, is well represented and widely presented to potential travelers. When traveling came off the table, I spent March, April and May working on badly-needed economic relief measures with other city staff, regional organizations and the governor’s office to ensure Seaside as a community had the best chance of bridging the pandemic and resulting economic crisis.

As we move into phase two of the state’s reopening framework along with the rest of the county and neighboring counties, travel will again become the focus point for my department and an important economic engine for recovery going forward.

Our marketing efforts necessarily went dark in March this year, about two months earlier than we’d typically go into a summer lull for advertising. Because our problem normally at this time of year is overtourism, we conduct more than 90% of our annual advertising efforts for Seaside in the off-season roughly September through May.

This is not a typical year. The next four months will probably be some of the most important months economically for this community in its history. Thanks to a global pandemic caused by a novel virus, the next four months will probably be some of the most important months with respect to our health and well being, too. Again, everything is connected.

Threading the needle between those two truths, our hotel, restaurant, retail, health care, personal services and — yes — government staff are all doing the absolute best they can with the tools they have and the restrictions under which they’re operating. The ideal and most basic thing any of us can bring to this immense challenge is patience and kindness in our day-to-day lives.

For our part, the Visitors Bureau will indeed be advertising through the summer months this year. Our daily web traffic actually popped above 2019 levels starting on May 22 and has remained there ever since. This is a good indicator considering we’ve only just resumed our work in earnest. We’ve put together a COVID landing page on the website with content about what to expect at hotels and vacation rentals, what to expect when dining in or taking out and what to expect at the beach and on the Prom. Soon our TV, radio and digital partners will begin pushing potential visitors there, too.

We figure it’s a good starting point for those thinking about visiting Seaside responsibly. We know people want to come and, for that, we’re thankful.

Got a comment or question? I’d love to hear from you. Write me at jheineman@cityofseaside.us.