The CalTIA Board of Directors has recently undergone an extensive strategic visioning process; whereby, we have developed a vision and mission that is taking us in a new direction. We have clarified our responsibility vis-à-vis the California Travel & Tourism Commission (CTTC), when it comes to California tourism. The CTTC's role is marketing the California brand and tourism experience around the world. CTTC’s bottom line: CTTC gets visitors here.

CalTIA's role in the industry is operations. CalTIA helps to protect and grow the tourism business environment, we want to deliver the exceptional California brand promise, and we want to build a consumer advocacy platform. As the direct point of contact with California's visitors, our businesses can encourage visitors to share the "Only in California" brand experience with friends and family around the world. CalTIA’s bottom line: CalTIA members provide a great visitor experience and get visitors to come back.

CalTIA will accomplish these goals through three pillars – ACE:

Advocacy - Collaboration - Education

Advocacy:
CalTIA’s goal is to communicate and work effectively with the California Legislature and the Executive Brand, including the Trade and Commerce Agency and the California Division of Tourism. We identify tourism issues and express CalTIA’s viewpoint to appropriate entities. Our efforts include sustaining effective state tourism development and ensuring we have adequate resources. Our legislative advocacy team represents the travel industry at important meetings, such as CTTC meetings, legislative committee hearings, and travel-related conferences. We maintain communications with local and federal offices, weighing in on tourism issues – all the while reinforcing tourism as one of California’s largest industries.

Collaboration:
CalTIA provides many opportunities for our members to collaborate and network.

The Conference on Tourism (COT) is our annual event which brings together individuals from all aspects of the California travel and tourism industry. COT is the perfect forum for attendees to increase both their individual knowledge of current travel and tourism issues, as well as gather and share new ideas that are directly applied to their organizations. Attendees say it best:

 “This was the best Conference on Tourism that I have attended in the past 10 years. The speakers were fantastic. The break-out sessions were also some of the best so far.”

 “The attendance was great and the sessions were very informative! I was able to take away new ideas to implement back home. I've already been in touch with some of the members to join forces. Thanks for your hard work to make it happen!”

The Rural Tourism Conference (RTC), also an annual event, focuses on reaching out to those travel and tourism individuals in the rural areas of California. RTC is an extraordinary opportunity for professionals to interact with colleagues from a wide variety of rural businesses including destination marketing, chambers, parks, hotels, and attractions. Held in the rural resort areas of California, RTC is a great time to network with others who face the same challenges in marketing the lesser known California destinations.

In addition to the above two annual events, collaboration occurs within our committee meetings, volunteer assignments, and even at the board level amongst our Board of Directors (almost 50 strong)!

Education:
Our goal is to provide as many opportunities to learn from each other – whether it’s through informal dinner meetings or in organized classroom settings taught by nationally known speakers. The Conference on Tourism is by far the greatest opportunity to learn, through our keynote speakers, educational breakout sessions, and EXPO tradeshow. Through our bi-monthly electronic publications, CalTIA Connections and CalTIA Ticker, the CalTIA members remain up to date on both current and relevant industry issues. And yet another venue, is the Rural Tourism Conference, with its many educational sessions designed as one-on-one opportunities for the attendees.