> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Vacationing in this town is big business, and the person behind making sure that an estimated $840 - URL: https://www.smdp.com/communityprofiles-20051031/ - Published: 2005-10-31T16:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-23T08:05:25.000Z - Author: Carolyn Sackariason - Tags: Business, Main St, #archive-import, Homeless *COMMUNITY PROFILES IS A WEEKLY SERIES THAT APPEARS EACH MONDAY AND DELVES INTO THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE, WORK AND PLAY IN SANTA MONICA. Misti Kerns: A tourist in her own town* MAIN STREET — Vacationing in this town is big business, and the person behind making sure that an estimated $840 million flows steadily into this city is Misti Kerns, a woman with Midwestern roots who wouldn’t trade life here for anything — not even the dream job she passed up eight years ago so she could head the Santa Monica Convention and Visitors Bureau. In 1997, Kerns had been working at Loews Santa Monica Hotel and was all set to move to Texas to live the American Dream — settle down, buy a house and raise her daughter with her husband, Chris. But the beauty, diversity and beach-town lifestyle won out. The job of director of sales and marketing opened up at the CVB and Kerns was asked to come on board. “I had given notice and was ready to move out of town,” she recalled. “I had given up my apartment and taken another job and panicked when I realized we were going to relocate. I said, ‘What am I doing?’ It all fell into place. I got my apartment back... I thought I knew what a CVB did. I had no idea what a CVB did.” Originally brought on to organize the first American Film Market at Loews, Kerns had been running conference and catering at the hotel for nearly seven years and was starting to burn out. “I was lucky enough to get pregnant, and I thought, ‘You know what, I don’t want to be on call 24 hours a day,’” Kerns said, adding an old colleague offered her a tremendous opportunity in Texas. “It was one of those situations where they say, ‘What do you want?’ and you make a list and think this will never happen. They called and said, ‘OK.’ And I thought, ‘Wow, how can I not?’ It was a wonderful opportunity. “I think part of it was having a mental lapse of being a mother, thinking we could own a home and live a different lifestyle but realized that I really enjoy living here and we decided to stay and it’s worked out great.” Kerns stayed and eventually worked her way to up to president and CEO of the CVB. That’s pretty much the story of Kerns’ career: A high school graduate from Akron, Ohio, who didn’t attend college but gained her knowledge by being in the trenches and learning on the job. She kept climbing the ladder in the hospitality business, working at various hotels in Palm Springs, including the Wyndham Hotel, which she helped open as conference and catering director. Kerns moved to Dana Point, but traveled frequently to Atlantic City, NJ, to help Donald Trump open the Taj Mahal. Tired of the hours involved in hotel catering and conferences, she came to Loews in 1990 specifically to set up the AFM, which begins its 15th year here this week. “I started on what was supposed to be a six-month getting the market up to speed and then I fell in love with Santa Monica and the hotel and never left,” Kerns said. She became president of the CVB in July, 2001, a time when Santa Monica was jumping in tourism. Business was good and life was good. Then the bottom dropped out when the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks happened, sending the tourism business in a tailspin that has just recently gained altitude. Operating on a $1.9 million annual budget — which pales in comparison to other similar tourist bureaus — Kerns values relationships in the community and believes it’s the key to her and the town’s success. Kerns, 43, who said she wishes she bought a home six years ago, rents an apartment in Sunset Park. She lives there with her husband and her daughter, who turns 11 years old today. She’s heavily involved her daughter’s life and is a Girl Scout leader. “I’m one of those parents that has to be involved in order to know what’s going on,” Kerns said. “I keep telling my husband that I want to be the house where everybody hangs out. What better way to know what’s going on?” The Santa Monica Daily Press caught up with Kerns at the CVB’s new office on Main Street to talk about the lucrative business of tourism in Santa Monica and the politics that comes with it. What have been the successes since you’ve been at the CVB? “I think overall, surviving and growing and being able to balance all of that. When you step into a situation that is running well, you always get more credit. I was able to tweak things and look at things from a different viewpoint. At that time, it was a different destination. This destination has grown. I didn’t build the hotels, the city did. My job is to keep them full. As long as I can stay focused on that, we are able to stay away from politics.” How political is your job? “The goal here is that we are non-political. I think that is what has sustained this office and what has made us successful over the years. My board is a board of 11\. The City Manager is that swing vote, if you will. Five of the members are appointed by the City Council and five members are appointed by the Chamber of Commerce. I think what is good when you come into the room at the CVB is that everyone can meet in the middle, and I don’t think that can happen in a lot of other situations and organizations.” Is that difficult because of the sometimes tumultuous relationship between City Hall and the Chamber of Commerce? “Of course, on a personal level, sometimes. It wouldn’t be human if it didn’t. But I think I and the staff have strong enough relationships and good communication flows, and a level of respect that goes both ways. I think the other thing that helps me is that I’m a staff person and the board is the board, the council is the council and the chamber is the chamber. There is only so much one individual and one organization can change. “In a lot of other communities, CVBs take positions on things. We purposely have avoided that. Sometimes, personally, you sit there and go, ‘Wow, no.’ But my agreement is with the organization. As long as we stay on focus on that and the mission statement, and I tell staff to keep the mission statement by you and every day whatever call or whatever request, if it can’t revert back or you are not achieving it, then it needs to go on the ‘maybe’ list. We have to stay focused. We are a small office — seven full-time people here.” How did the terrorist attacks affect you? “9-11, what an unfortunate tragedy. At the same time, for tourism, worldwide, it was an acknowledgment of people realizing that the community had to pull together and we offered discounted rates and worked together. I think something good did come out of it.” For a city that generates $840 million in tourism revenues, $1.9 million from City Hall doesn’t seem very much. How do you manage that? “Proving. Constantly educating the public and exposing them to the CVB. Having the vision to get people here. The people most excited about this sit on City Council, which to me is rewarding on its own because they have a lot invested here too. Do I wish it was more? Yeah, because I think the return on investment would be fabulous.” How do you sustain those numbers on a limited budget? “The frustrating part of the job is constantly proving (sustaining the numbers) over and over again. Right now, we can only pick one international market to work every year. That is the most frustrating thing when you are looking at research that’s telling you that this isn’t pie in the sky. These people are here, what countries they are coming from and what they are spending.” Who are we targeting? “I will answer you and say who can we afford to target? I’m very aware of what our competition is and how much money they spend that I’m not able to spend in advertising, as an example.” Is Santa Monica an easy sell? “I don’t think Santa Monica is a no-brainer sell, but I wouldn’t put it in a category of an easy sell. I would say it’s less challenging than other destinations. If am going to pick a community and destination to sell, how lucky am I?” What’s Santa Monica’s selling point? “Diversity. When you are selling something, when you are pushing something and they say, ‘Well, I don’t think this.’ OK, then let me pull out the other 10 things. The people and what’s here, I don’t know if it exists anywhere else. We are really lucky.” What is your favorite part of the job? “I think it’s an exciting place to live. I get to meet people that I just don’t think I would get exposed to anywhere else.” Least favorite part of the job? “The politics. Having to be distracted. It’s very frustrating because we program our time, I swear, to the -nth hour. I shouldn’t be dealing with politics. We are marketing and public relations. It’s something that shouldn’t be part of what we deal with sometimes. You lose focus. In our camp, it’s never been in a vicious or vindictive or way. I think that makes a lot of difference for me personally. I’ve never felt under attack.” What are the challenges? “The competition. People’s time. Accessibility. Things so far beyond my control. If you are in Japan and someone says, ‘Where is Santa Monica?’ and you say, ‘We’re in LA,’ they glaze over. It’s huge, overwhelming, can’t get around it. Part of it is making sure people know we are accessible. I don’t care how hard the client is, as soon as I say we are eight miles from LAX, they are mine. They are going to save a ton of money on transportation costs, they can walk around and it lends itself to that type of experience.” With an average hotel room at more than $200 a night, is affordability an issue here? “I think that is a question that the market dictates. I don’t get that as a problem here. At the same time, there are other destinations around us that are more affordable, like the Marina.” Is it difficult to get visitors to return here, especially since Santa Monica is located in a big city? “There are a lot of challenges here just like everywhere else. I think from the customer service standpoint, that’s critical for Santa Monica right now because if we are going to sustain the numbers because we’ve grown huge and I don’t know how possible it is to stay at this level, it’s pretty high right now. One of the ways to ensure that we are is to keep thanking the people that come so they come back. Converting one customer is so much easier and so much more affordable than going out trying to find new ones.” How do you deal with the homeless population from a tourism standpoint? “Hotel staff ask, ‘What do I do when someone comes to my front desk and says something about the transient situation or is it safe to go to the Santa Monica Pier?’ Those are questions that get asked and there is a way to answer it. We’ve got a lot of experience on how to deal with that. I would say, be smart. If you go to the beach, you don’t take a bottle of wine and sit in a secluded part under the pier with your boyfriend. Is there anywhere in the world you would do that? There is no where in the world I would do that. This is a city like any other city. Be cautious. Use your head when you are traveling.” Do you get complaints about the homeless population? “Yes, and so does New York and so does downtown LA and so does Atlanta, Ga. I don’t think there are very many places anymore, unfortunately. I think there is a nod of respect that so many people here feel it is a responsibility and it’s a role we have. “It’s part of the overall experience. It’s the fabric of this community. People say, ‘What do you do about the transient and homeless population?’ And my response almost always is that it’s in most communities. It’s certainly here. We live in a community that has a big heart. It’s been a fabric of this community for a very, very long time.” “People from another country, they’ll come here and depending on where they are, they’ll see a lot or none. In Palisades Park, down by the pier, you’ll see them. The further north, it completely changes. You’ll see older seniors playing checkers. To me, that’s just so cool. That, to me, is a one-minute glimpse of this community. It’s very diverse, from the park itself to the different neighborhoods you go to. I really think it is a small community that has so much to offer.” What’s new at the CVB? “We want to be self-sustaining, and our retail at the Main Street location is part of that. Every dollar I can save allows me to put it into another trade show or another direct mail piece. I would hope that by our third year here, we are able to bring in about $100,000. “One of the things we are looking at right now is possibly becoming a California-recognized welcome center. And customer service training and branding is our big things this year. “The customer training will very affordable interactive customer service and diversity training. I really think it will be set up regardless of what your business is, to learn to treat people how you want to be treated. “You want to help people. That’s what makes it fun. Locally, when Aunt Sally comes to stay for three weeks and you don’t know what to do with her, drop her at the visitor center. My staff would be thrilled to tell Aunt Sally whatever they rattle off their head — what bus to take, what is a lot of walking, what isn’t. I really wish residents would use that more. That’s the really good thing about being on Main Street... we’ve had a lot of support from the residents here.” What’s been implemented in recent years? “Visitor services has been huge. We went from one person in a kiosk seven hours a day to eight people available at four different locations.” What’s your favorite place in Santa Monica? “You won’t believe what my answer will be. I would say sitting and thinking at my desk. Because I don’t get a chance to do that a lot and it allows me time to not look at the beauty of Santa Monica. I mean, could I sit here and tell you that it’s lifeguard stand number 26 with my daughter and romping in the waves? Absolutely. But I think it’s really to sit here and be a visionary of what can happen. What needs to happen. Where are we lacking or where is the destination lacking? I think the biggest part of my job is having to do that. I know that seems like a weird answer, but that’s really it.” Least favorite thing about Santa Monica? “Housing costs. It would be a dream for me to own a home here and know that my child will be able to continue that. It’s an interesting dynamic because it’s not really indicative of the community itself.” *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on October 31, 2005.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/103105.pdf?ref=smdp.com)