On Wednesday, Sept. 26, Visit California and the county of Lake co-hosted a Crisis Tourism Recovery Forum at the Soper Reese Theatre in Lakeport.

Ms. Caroline Beteta, president and CEO of Visit California was the guest speaker and presented attendees with an overview of Visit California’s function in which “they work in partnership with the state’s travel industry to inspire travel to all parts of California. Travelers spent $132 billion in 2017 in California, directly supporting more than 1.1 million California jobs and $10.9 billion in state and local tax revenue.”

Huge thanks to Mike Adams and the whole Soper Reese Theatre crew who made it all happen with the short time-frame we had to do so.

Thank you to Supervisor Moke Simon for being the master of ceremony (and panelist); to Wilda Shock, president of the Lake County Economic Development Corp.; and Helena Welsh, executive director of the Lake County Winery Association for agreeing to be panelists along with Ms. Beteta. The panel fielded moderated questions as well as interactive questions from the audience.

A forum isn’t a forum without all those who took time out of their day to attend and share their thoughts about the impacts to our local tourism industry in the wake of the Mendocino Complex fire.

Thank you so much to Lake County News for filming the event and to the Record-Bee for attending as well.

Michelle Scully is deputy county administrative officer for the county of Lake, Calif.