Claudia Vecchio of Sonoma County Tourism

As President and CEO of Sonoma County Tourism, Claudia Vecchio always has an eye on the delicate balance between tourism growth and community stewardship. No small task in one of the most famous wine-producing regions in the world, a place that set the template for experiential travel.

We talk tourism, California, ecology, how Sonoma excels in the beauty of backroads discovery, the region's long history of artisanal culture, "Wine Country for All of Us," and what travelers want when they head up the 101. Also: Yakov Smirnoff, jazz piano, great beer, and 21 Jump Street.

Transcript

From Snowdrifts To Sonoma Sun

Matt Brown 0:08

Hi everybody, it's No Show with Matt Brown and Jeff Borman. As I continue to shovel snow again from my Hudson Valley driveway, my mind will drift to the sunlit uplands of Northern California, Sonoma County, to be exact. There, in my mind and in reality, you will find rugged Pacific coastline, redwood forests, wineries, the Charles M. Schultz Museum and Research Center, and you will find our guest today, Claudia Vecchio, who brings more than 25 years of experience in the destination and consumer marketing arena to her current role as president CEO of Sonoma County Tourism. Before that, she was director of the Nevada Department of Tourism and Cultural Affairs and had prior stops in the tourism industry all across the U.S. She's become a specialist of sorts, creating a broader, deeper understanding of very famous places beyond what they're famous for. And today she's going to lay down some sweet jazz. I almost wish she had her piano with her to accompany our conversation about tourism, California, community, and what travelers want when they head up north on the 101. Claudia Vecchio, welcome to No Show.

Claudia Vecchio 1:20

My goodness, what an introduction. I couldn't be happier to be here. It's 65 degrees and sunny, so I'm sorry to say, but it is a gorgeous day in Sonoma County.

Matt Brown 1:30

I resent you and envy you. So thank you.

Claudia Vecchio 1:35

We have very little to complain about in Sonoma County at any time of the year, but boy, during the winters, when we look at the rest of the country, and we just, you know, I've lived all over the country, as you noted. Uh, but but boy, it is a spectacular place to live for sure.

What Makes Sonoma Feel Local

Jeff Borman 1:51

The first time I was in Sonoma was about 20 years ago, and I went to the Russian River Wine Festival, the Winter Wine Festival. And uh my friend, uh, we we drove up from San Francisco, and I thought, is this really the right time to be doing this wine experience, this wine country experience? And it was locals only. Uh it actually, having done dozens since winter was spectacular.

Claudia Vecchio 2:14

Well, you're 100% right. And that's really how we talk about winter, certainly. And we have lots to talk about throughout the year, but that really intimate, sort of more, you said locals, but that real familial, you know, we all feel like we're family up here in the win in the wintertime, and um, it really is a beautiful time to be here and a really great time to really kind of delve deep into what the wine industry and the brewery industry and distillery and all the makers and all the everything we have up here, but you're right, there isn't lines in front of you trying to get that same information. So it's a great time to be here.

Jeff Borman 2:49

Yeah, you know, I said locals. I could have very well been wrong and just felt that way.

Claudia Vecchio 2:53

Well, you know, I really think that's how people feel in Sonoma County. You know, there's there are other wine regions around the state, around the world, and you you just sort of feel like you're a number and you're there in a, you know, in a sort of a catacol and you're going from place to place. But Sonoma County, you know, the the wineries are often smaller. You kind of have to be intentional about getting to some of them and go on sort of dirt roads and out into the hills of Sonoma County. But once you get there, you and you get to experience these totally beautiful wines and these really passionate, wonderful uh creators, it it really does make you feel like you're local and like you're part of the family. And that I think is really what our real sort of differentiating culture about this place truly is.

Jeff Borman 3:39

40 years ago, uh Sonoma and Napa pretty much were wineries of the United States, and uh really between you and your neighboring county and the ABVs that you that you you represent, you've set the course for what the rest of the country now follows. Do you feel the competition coming from around even California, Santa Barbara, Pasarobles, or uh up in Oregon, Columbia Valley in Washington, right? Everywhere, do you feel the competition?

Competition And The Next 50 Years Of Wine

Claudia Vecchio 4:07

Absolutely. You're 100% right. So um this is actually the 50th anniversary of the Judgment of Paris, and that was the you know, that big event kind of put um California wines on the map, on the global map. Um it was a wine from Napa, but the grapes came from Sonoma County, and so sort of collectively we marched along um in that process that that won that Judgment of Paris. And so we celebrate 50 years of incredible winemaking on both of these in these counties that really are when you think of wine country, you think of Napa and Sonoma County, California. And we do feel competition. You know, in the travel industry, it's oftentimes what's new, what's cool, you know, what's you know, what's the latest, greatest thing. And um, you get an influencer, you get something that that pops up, a new winery or new this or new that, and everybody flocks to it. So uh right now in the wine industry, it probably as most people know with having challenges, we're kind of all in this together now. So um, yes, over the past 50 years, I think we've been able to sort of sustain that friendly competition, but now we have to work together and we really have to identify how we help move this industry forward in a very meaningful and new way.

Matt Brown 5:24

You know, when you go to other wine-producing regions, especially in the West Coast, and and of course you love your brothers and sisters across the county line, but that like Napa, you can almost universally say if you get into a conversation in a tasting room up and down the coast, oh, we're not Napa. It's like it it we're down home, we're real. Sonoma probably doesn't have to do that quite as much because the the vineyards there are so old and it's been such a part of tourism in the region. But are there surprising demographics that you've seen over the last year or so on who's visiting Sonoma, who maybe even different than say five years ago?

New Visitor Trends And Family Appeal

Claudia Vecchio 6:01

Absolutely, and that's that's such an interesting question, and we do track that pretty closely because um you mentioned at the top of this introduction that we have the Charles Schultz Museum and we have um Safari West, which is a great uh uh kind of an animal adventure uh area and the coast and the extraordinary redwoods. So Sonoma County is very has very much of appeal for families. And so we are starting to see some more families come into Sonoma County than we have in the past. And uh that's a great thing because even some wineries now are adopting and providing opportunities for families to enjoy that winery, whether it's um an activity like a bodge ball or other kinds of things that they offer at the at the winery or the way they talk about their wines or or offer non-alcoholic drinks to well, both those who don't drink, but also to to families. So we are seeing an influx in families, and that's um we we like to see that because it's re-energizes Sonoma County, and it really does energize um this place for future generations of travelers. So that's a good thing. Um, we are also seeing, you know, with the sort of downturn in international travelers, we are really seeing the double down in the in the Bay Area, sort of our bread and butter markets more than we have in the past, and and people really wanting to stay close to home. Uh, you know, Sonoma County's fan base is so big that when people feel like they can, they go out and they experience other places. But now they're really coming back to Sonoma County. And so we love seeing those people. I mean, talk about feeling like family, those are very often repeat visitors. So uh the economy, the you know, the global situation really are keeping people closer to home, and we're we're seeing that in a big way.

Matt Brown 7:51

I feel like it's a a delicate time in the county's history and probably the the the tourism board's history to to some of the points that you bring up, you know, there's uh a wine improvement district over the last six months or so that has has created much spirited debate in in the region. And I feel like you are you were just constantly balancing what meets the needs of the community, what meets the needs of tourism in the community. Has your mission changed over the last year or so in ways that support the wine industry, but then also, you know, it's like, okay, we need we need to we need to really kind of put other eggs in other baskets as far as incentivizing people to come here and making sure they get value for their money when they come here?

Stewardship Over Sales

Claudia Vecchio 8:31

That's a big question. So um, yes, we've we have we continue to look at analyze the scenario. Since 2017, when Sonoma County was um had one of the big fires in California, and we had to deal with that crisis, and we've had to deal with crisis after crisis after crisis over the past eight years or so. We are constantly looking at how we create value for our visitors, how we create a quality of life for our residents that sustains this place, how we make sure we are looking at all of those assets from a kind of a sustainability metric, if you will. We look at people, planet, profit, and we try and balance all that. In 2018, Sonoma County Tourism became the first destination stewardship organization in the country, really planting a stake in the fact that we need to be very mindful about how visitors interact with our natural resources. And as an agricultural destination, as a place that has stunningly beautiful natural resources, the value is in the sort of broadest sense is that you come to Sonoma County, you get this extraordinary experience, especially if you're wine food lovers, you get to enjoy this breathtakingly beautiful place, but let's be sure that we take care of it. When we talk simply about brand and brand messages, um we we talk about how life opens up in Sonoma County. I believe that that is very definitely a message that resonates with wine lovers. Um in reality, you're driving through Sonoma County and you go from the Mayacamas Mountains sort of through the vineyards out to the ocean, you're the sky opens up. You're, I mean, just geographically, life opens up in Sonoma County. So there's a lot that we could talk about as it relates to our brand there.

Jeff Borman 10:27

My my last trip, my wife and I were out there for a wonderful wine experience, and we had that. I think the most memorable part was being limited to two Pliny D elders uh at the Russian River Brew Company. Yeah. And we knew we were gonna stop uh at La Gunita's. We didn't plan to stay there for nearly as long as we did. It ended up that the brewery culture, which I think you know is greatly overshadowed by wine culture in the region, it was as fun and as memorable as anything else we did that weekend.

Claudia Vecchio 11:03

Yeah, the brewery culture really is you're 100% right. It is overshadowed. But Snowbook County has a really rich history in the brewing world, uh, starting back again 50 years ago with new new album brewing and then kind of um maturing through the years to kind of the big names like Loganitas and Russian River Brewing, but then just these wonderful brewers who are creating these amazing um beers throughout the county. It just, you know, Sonoma County, what we I call it a uh a community of artisans, and whether you're brewing beer or you're making wool or you're growing lavender or you're a winemaker, you do it in a way that is considered artisanal. So there's a special curation of of how things are done at Sonoma County, and that's a really important component of what makes this place so special.

Beer, Makers, And Sonoma’s Artisanal Culture

Jeff Borman 11:54

Let's talk wine country for all of us for a moment. A 25 initiative focused on social inclusion, accessibility, ensuring a welcoming environment for visitors. What drove you to do this? Uh what did you expect the result to be? What have you seen?

Wine Country For All: Inclusion And Access

Claudia Vecchio 12:11

So we started to think about uh the real values of Sonoma County as we um back in the fall of 2025 kind of understanding how the world was going to be moving uh and the sort of direction of the tenor of conversation and and how values were going to be kind of shifting. Sonoma County has always been a place that is very welcoming. Um it is a it is a place that rolls out the welcome at for everybody, but we really hadn't been talking about that specifically. So, Wine Country for All of Us, uh it really is an initiative that showcases how Sonoma County does welcome everybody. Uh, we have had a long history of being a very rich and wonderful LGBTQ community, um, really welcoming that group. And that's something that we have always done. Um, but to help our industry as we shifted the way we talked globally about each other, um, to make sure that there was an inclusive conversation that happened when people come into tasting rooms or they go into any of our attractions, that people feel like they are truly welcome no matter who they are, no matter where they're from. While that may seem like, of course, that's hospitality, there is some training that needs to be done to make sure that those messages and that show of support and welcome does happen. So we've partnered with, and lots of destinations have partnered with this extraordinary organization, Wheel the World, um, to be an accessible destination, uh, to be destination verified, they call it. So we have we've done mapping of our um many of our properties, and we continue to do that. It's an ongoing process. So people who have accessibility needs when they come to Sonoma County know what to expect when they go into various places, including hotels and restaurants and um attractions and such. Why is that part of wine country for all of us? Because the accessible community is very definitely a community that has not felt like they've been welcomed. And there's been a lot of obstacles, especially as it relates to travel. And we wanted to take those obstacles out um with Sonoma County. So we're also going to be doing it in inclusivity conversation with our properties to make sure that there is the right dialogue happening between our properties and our guests.

Matt Brown 14:44

How many visitors come to the county every year?

Claudia Vecchio 14:47

Generally somewhere between about 10 and a half and 11 million visitors of those, roughly 60 percent are locals and 40 percent are out of out of the region. So so that it's it's a good number.

Scale, Spend, And Economic Impact

Matt Brown 15:03

Do you have any idea what they spend or do you do you have you amassed any numbers about what the economic impact is of their tourism?

Claudia Vecchio 15:10

Do we do? We do an economic impact study every year, and um it's right around $2.4 billion of economic spend in the in the region, uh, which is a a nice number. We really don't want to talk about numbers so much. We do like to talk more about the economic impact and the um how and the revenue that comes into our small businesses and our other businesses throughout the county. And that really is more of a stewardship approach than a marketing sales approach. Um, but it's good information for us to know if we're up and down, up or down, as especially as it relates to overnight visitation.

Jeff Borman 15:51

The Achilles heel of great and quaint destinations is staying that way as the vehicular traffic and foot traffic overwhelms these delicate little destinations. Uh in your role, you're promoting visitors. How do you balance those two things? We need more traffic, we need more economics, uh we also need to keep it nice and quiet and tight for the people who live here and the visitors who want to see it that way. How do you do that?

Managing Crowds And Protecting Place

Claudia Vecchio 16:18

Yeah, that's that's the whole reason for being a stewardship organization is to help people know that we are looking at that balance. So the numbers are not as important as finding people who will respect and protect this place. Um, and are the are the customers who will buy wine and go to our small businesses and enjoy the assets that we have here. So that's why we really don't talk numbers, and we talk more about the economics of the of our visitors, um, but it is a balance. And in Sonoma County, uh there was boy, post-COVID, we were just overrun for all the reasons that destinations like ours was were after COVID. Um, but you've been here and you know we have these sort of small, windy winery roads, and they can get overwhelmed. And yeah, how do you message people to find something new, to not go to the big guys, to find a little winery, to find a uh a beach that people don't go to all the time, to find a new way to kayak the Russian river. Um, you know, so so it is uh really our responsibility to message those sort of off, and this is a cliche, I understand it, but those off-the-beaten path places that really do provide exceptional experiences. Um, but at the same time, we still we always say protect and preserve this place and keep it for generations because otherwise we are not doing our job in a responsible way.

Lightning Round: TV, Branson, And Jazz

Matt Brown 17:52

It's time to play a lightning round game called Is It True?

Claudia Vecchio 17:56

Uh oh. Oh my gosh.

Matt Brown 17:58

That's right. Is it true that you were part of the Fox Broadcasting Network's television programming at the very beginning 40 years ago?

Claudia Vecchio 18:09

I was. Um not the very, very beginning, but I came in um when there was uh programming like the Arsenio Hall show, duet, um Married with Children. Married with Children, 21 Jump Street, those really Tracy Ullman, I'm sure. Tracy Ullman, uh and there for the beginning of The Simpsons when they were just a portion of, I think it was the Tracy Ullman show, but but just it was the very start of the Fox Network. I think we were on two nights a week. Um, but uh that was some time ago. So gosh, thanks for bringing that up.

Matt Brown 18:47

You don't sound appreciative when I brought it up. But it's it's fascinating. I'm sure it had some some wild and woolly moments.

Claudia Vecchio 18:57

It it was it was a really interesting time to be there. There's no question about it. There were some very interesting characters trying to um make that whole thing happen, and um, so it was a it was a fun time to be at that particular network in Branson, Missouri.

Jeff Borman 19:14

In your time, did you ever meet a celebrity? And please say it was Jakov Smirnoff.

A Life In Wine And Why It Matters

Claudia Vecchio 19:21

I knew Yaakov Smirnoff well. What? Shouldn't I have? Jakov was great. Yaakov Smirnoff. Um, I mean, there were lots of celebrities when I was in Branson. And he Williams was there, the Osmonds were there, um, Shoji Tabucci. I don't know if you're familiar with that character. He was a violinist, just uh everybody had to see the Shoji Chabuci show. It was it was a quite a spectacle. Presley's the bald knobbers, I mean, all the alls. That was that was sort of back. I was I was in Branson, Branson had its heyday, and you know, really when 60 Minutes called it the entertainment capital of the world, people turned off their televisions and headed to Branson. So there was this big swell, and all these big theaters were built, and it was, you know, it was quite the happening. And then it kind of went through a little bit of a lull after all that building had occurred. And I came in at that point, and um, we were really trying to enhance the brand for families and for um at that point boomers and others that had not traditionally come to Branson. So I was sort of in that midpoint, and and it has since you know really flourished with the convention center and this whole rebut redevelopment downtown.

Matt Brown 20:31

That must have been crazy because it's like it's like living in like Gatlinburg. I mean, well, and Vegas too. Did you live in Vegas when you were working for the state?

Claudia Vecchio 20:39

For for a time I did.

Matt Brown 20:40

Okay.

Claudia Vecchio 20:41

They're very similar in that they are entertainment focused, um big shows, and so yeah, there's a lot of similarities.

Matt Brown 20:50

So so I would imagine when you got to Sonoma, it's like, huh, I can breathe. There's no there's no neon sign out my front front window.

Claudia Vecchio 20:59

There's no neon sign at this point in my career. I came for the wine, believe in me.

Matt Brown 21:05

Is it true you play jazz piano?

Claudia Vecchio 21:08

Moderately. I play jazz piano to entertain myself. So I um I was a music major in college and for a while and then became a music minor. But I played in a lot of jazz bands throughout high school and college. Uh and that's kind of what I wanted to do with my life, but I wasn't that good. So the idea of playing at holiday ins and you know on the freeway, it would just really wasn't for me. So I switched to something that was a little more sustainable. I'm not sure I found it, but it's a I I still play jazz piano. I love jazz. I, you know, we have a really burgeoning jazz scene out here in Healdsburg and throughout Sonoma County, and I I love that.

Matt Brown 21:48

My hope is, Claudia, that there's there'll come a time when you're at a uh restaurant, lounge area, and sorry folks, we we're supposed to have piano player with us tonight, but he fell ill. Uh so no music tonight. And then the crowd kind of has a collective awe. And unless there's anybody here who who'd like to get up and do it and it's like, well, no, no, no, I could never. And then an hour later, you're essentially playing the hits, you're leading the sing-alongs. That's my dream for you.

Claudia Vecchio 22:17

Well, don't hang your head on that dream.

Matt Brown 22:20

Um last one here. Do you prefer wine or other beverages?

Claudia Vecchio 22:26

Oh, I'm a wine person.

Matt Brown 22:28

Okay.

Claudia Vecchio 22:29

Yeah. I I've I uh I've been a wine person for quite a while, and I I just love not only drinking wine, which I do just with some frequency, but I love learning about it. And I I just think the the whole culture around wine and this this it is an ancient, ancient um beverage, and all that we can learn about ourselves and about cultures and about you know how we interact with each other and the social aspect of wine, I I just I love it all. And um, I just living in a place that produces the some of the best wines in the world is just, I mean, it is a gift. It is so much fun, and you know, I I wouldn't trade it for anything.