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POIMIROO & PARTNERS
John Poimiroo, APR
John Poimiroo, APR
Poimiroo & Partners, 1448 Crocker Drive, El Dorado Hills, CA 95762
Tel: (916) 933-8860 Fax: (916) 933-5406
john@poimiroo.com
John Poimiroo is a 30-year career professional in marketing and
public relations. During the 1990s, he was a Deputy Secretary for
the California Trade and Commerce Agency. In this capacity, he
worked closely with California’s Secretary of Trade and Commerce and
Governor, in changing how California defended and promoted its
economy.
In this capacity, he helped turn around many years of declining
international tourism, reestablishing California as the most visited
state in the nation by both national and international tourists.
Upon completion of his term as Director of Tourism in 1999,
California tourism was producing over $65 billion in sales,
generating $8 billion in federal, state and local tax revenues,
employing 700,000 Californians, and tourism had increased to 260
million annual trips taken within California.
When he took office, Poimiroo changed California’s approach to
tourism advertising. For years preceding, California had been
promoting 12 different destinations within the state, called “The
Californias.” He moved California Tourism away from promoting the
state's geography, to promoting its experiences, introducing the
highly effective "California, Find Yourself Here" campaign that
continues today. This approach generated substantial gains in travel
to California.
Call volume increased by over 100% and as much as 42% in a single
year, despite the state’s advertising budget having declined from $3
million to $2.2 million. The advertising program he directed was
measured as generating 785,000 “incremental” visitors, $729 million
in “new” travel spending, $27.7 million in additional state taxes,
$13.3 million in additional local taxes and directly supported the
establishment of 8,700 jobs. This was a return on investment of 327
to one in increased spending within California and 12 to 1 in
increased tax revenues. California overtook Florida as the most
visited state by international visitors and increased its lead over
Florida in visitation by Americans. Today, travel spending in
California is 150% larger than in Florida.
In association with Senator Herschel Rosenthal, John Poimiroo
conceived a new method of financing and operating, Welcome Centers
using private investment for their construction and operation. Prior
to 1995, California had no Welcome Centers, but since the act was
established, a dozen California Welcome Centers have opened and are
operating, without a cent of cost to California taxpayers.
A hallmark of his leadership as State Tourism Director was
conceiving and establishing the California Tourism Marketing Act a
method of financing state tourism marketing that privatized state
tourism marketing and doubled the state’s tourism budget.
In recognition of these accomplishments, Poimiroo was honored by the
Travel Industry Association of America in 1998 when the National
Council of State Tourism Directors elected him to be the United
States’ “State Tourism Director of the Year,” the highest honor
presented to a governmental tourism officer. Additionally, that
year, he was the first alumnus of the University of Colorado to
receive the Chancellor’s Tourism Award and was inducted into the
California Tourism Hall of Fame.
John Poimiroo’s career began in 1973 at the Eldora Ski Area in
Nederland, Colorado where he was a ski patroller. He got on a chair
lift with the ski area owner one day, made a few suggestions, and by
the top of the lift was named the area's director of marketing. From
Colorado, John and his wife, Joan, moved back to their native
California where John directed public relations and marketing at
Squaw Valley USA. John was part of the Marriott team that opened the
Great America theme park in Santa Clara in 1976. He continued with
Great America as the park's public relations manager, was Marriott’s
first Theme Park Group Travel and Tourism Director participating in
Pacific Rim tour group development and was park general sales
manager before entering the public relations agency field in 1981.
At Hoefer-Amidei Public Relations and later at Ketchum Public
Relations in San Francisco (and briefly as director of Ketchum’s
Houston office), he directed campaigns for numerous national
accounts including: the California Raisin Advisory Board, Levi
Strauss, Paul Masson, the California Brandy Advisory Board, Norway
Sardines, the California Prune Advisory Board, Rockwell
International Semiconductors, Yosemite Park and Curry Co., Ski Lake
Tahoe, the Polynesian Cultural Center, Marriott Hotels, Cushman
Wakefield, the RREEF Funds, California First Bank, Gulf Oil and
Spoons Restaurants.
While serving as Vice President/Group Manager at Ketchum Public
Relations in San Francisco, John's first assignment for the Yosemite
Park and Curry Company, was to help coordinate press details for the
visit of Queen Elizabeth II to The Ahwahnee. He later established
the Yosemite Chefs Holidays (one of the nation’s first and longest
running culinary series).
In 1984, he left Ketchum to become Vice President of Marketing for
Roaring Camp Inc., a historic tourist railroad in the Santa Cruz
mountains and with the railroad’s owner successfully negotiated
purchase of a short line from the Southern Pacific RR, which now
profitably operates commercial freight and tourist excursions along
its track. In 1986, John joined the Curry Company as its Vice
President of Communications. John spent the next six years
coordinating marketing and public relations programs in Yosemite
National Park and was part of a team that received two “Take Pride
in California” and two “Take Pride in America” environmental awards.
John left Yosemite in March 1992 when he became California's state
tourism director. During his years as Deputy Secretary for Tourism
of the California Trade and Commerce Agency, California Tourism won
awards for innovative advertising, fulfillment, radio production,
scenic byway promotion, public relations, video and film production,
handicapped accessibility and international marketing, and
participated in winning two national Travel Industry Association of
America Odyssey Awards, the highest tourism marketing awards
presented in the United States. John was a leader in developing
heritage and cultural tourism programs with the California Arts
Council and State Office of Historic Preservation.
Following his term as California’s state tourism director, John
assisted California’s Secretary of State with sponsor development
for California’s 150th anniversary before returning to private
practice. In 1999, he established Poimiroo & Partners, a
communications consultancy that specializes in public relations,
advertising, marketing, photography and strategic planning. His
clientele include the California Parks Company, a major state and
national park concessioner (Lassen Volcanic National Park, Angel
Island State Park, Big Basin State Park); Dyer Mountain Associates,
LLC, a winter resort development based in Westwood, CA; Intel Museum
in Santa Clara, CA; the Folsom Tourism Bureau; Yosemite Resorts a
major hotelier providing gateway services at Yosemite National Park,
the Redding C&VB, North American Journeys of San Francisco, the
California Cultural and Heritage Tourism Council and the Folsom
Tourism Bureau. He additionally advises communities on tourism
funding solutions and, in partnership with Downtown Resources,
provides guidance on establishing Tourism Business Improvement
Districts.
Throughout his career, he has gained particular expertise in crisis
communications management, handling public relations and
communications response on over 30 disasters and communications
crises. Within weeks following 9/11, the State of New York sought
John Poimiroo’s counsel regarding crisis response and image
recovery. This is one of several tourism topics that he has
presented before state and regional tourism conferences.
He is Travel Editor of California magazine, and has written for
Sunset magazine, the Food & Beverage Journal and Country Inns
magazine. John has received numerous awards in journalism, public
relations and photography. He is the only person to have ever won
both the Society of American Travel Writers Western Chapter Photo
Shootout Gold Prize and its prestigious Frank Riley Award for travel
writing.
Additionally, John is on the executive committee of the California
Roundtable on Recreation, Parks and Tourism and is a member of the
California Travel Industry Association, the Outdoor Writers
Association of California, the Society of American Travel Writers
and is an accredited member of the Public Relations Society of
America.
He was past president of the California Travel Industry Association,
founder and chair of the Western States Tourism Policy Council, head
of the California delegation to the White House Conference on Travel
and Tourism, Vice Chair of the California Tourism Commission, a
board member of the National Council of State Tourism Directors, a
board member of Watchable Wildlife, Inc., a Commissioner of the
California Sesquicentennial Commission and the sole tourism advisor
to the Outdoor Recreation Plan for California.
John received a Bachelor’s degree in public relations from San Jose
State University in 1969 and a Master’s degree in journalism, with
honors, from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1973. He
retired from the U.S. Naval Reserve in 1996 at the rank of Captain
(O-6), following 30 years service. John and Joan Poimiroo live in El
Dorado Hills, Calif. Joan is Executive Vice President of Asset
Preservation, Inc. in Granite Bay. Their eldest daughter, Nicole, is
a public policy analyst in San Jose, their son, Louis, is senior
financial analyst at Fox Entertainment in Los Angeles and their
youngest daughter, Aimee, is a sales manager for The Palace Hotel in
San Francisco. John is an avid sailor who races sailboats.
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