SAN DIEGO — San Diego is shelling out $3 million on an event that most residents have never heard of.
America’s Finest City, along with Tijuana, won a World Design Capital distinction more than a year ago, which is supposed to bring a big conference, events and media attention in 2024. It honors design in buildings, cultural sites and more.
The hope, from city officials, is that spending the money will yield more in return for tourism promotion and long-lasting ideas that come out of the event.
Mayor Todd Gloria, who pushed hard for the distinction from the Montreal-based World Design Organization, told The San Diego Union-Tribune in November 2021 the city would not be contributing direct funds to the bid, which would be handled by private donations and organizers.
That changed in mid-June when the City Council voted unanimously to give $3 million to organizers.
The mayor’s office said the funding was the decision of the City Council and directed questions to the governing body. It also said Gloria had no plans to veto the budget.
Councilmember Raul Campillo, who led the charge for the funds, said the decision was based on requests by organizers for money and an economic report about the benefits of the distinction from the previous World Design Capital of Valencia, Spain.
“As we saw the benefits to the city of Valencia, we quickly realized that this is a really good investment for the city,” he said.
San Diego and Tijuana organizers had advocated for eight or nine months for the $3 million, Campillo said. It appears that fund-raisers are far off from the estimated $8 million to $10 million to put on the event, and the thinking is the city donation will kick start donations from private sources. Carlos de la Mora, chief executive of World Design Capital San Diego-Tijuana, released a limited email statement about hopes for more funding.
An economic study on World Design Capital 2022 found every 1 euro of public money for the event generated 5.7 euros back for the Spanish region. The World Design Organization said Valencia’s event got 5 million euros (roughly $5,478,150 in U.S. dollars) from public sources and 420,000 euros (about $460,164) from private investments.
The economic report from the University of Valencia, covering the first three months of the 12-month designation, said the distinction led to direct spending of 9 million euros in hotel stays, restaurants and bars, and attending events. The design organization said the marketing of Valencia was additionally helped by nearly 10,000 news articles about the event, in such publications as Condé Nast Traveler, The Independent and Architectural Digest.
The World Design Capital distinction might be not well known in the U.S., but it’s a big deal in other parts of the world. Previous design capitals have been Seoul, Helsinki, Cape Town, Taipei and Mexico City. In the final decision, San Diego/Tijuana beat out Moscow for 2024.
Campillo said there was always a sense the actual application for the World Design Capital — costing around $28,000 — was not going to take city funds, but it’s not like there was this huge change in thinking when the city decided to put money forward. Gloria said in November the city would likely offer a lot of in-kind services, such as the use of space, and possibly speeding up projects to coincide with the start of events.
Some San Diegans might say they would rather see the $3 million go to other needs, such as road repair, but Campillo said the idea is to spend money to make money. He noted that the city already spends millions each year to promote San Diego — $25 million to the Tourism Authority by way of the city’s Tourism Marketing District — so the World Design money could amplify what they are already doing for tourism.
“The World Design Capital is a particularized destination that will bring a spotlight to San Diego and Tijuana to highlight our region,” he said. “This is going to create, and sustain, lots of really good jobs in the same way that spending on marketing for San Diego, more broadly speaking, does already.”
Campillo said it would cost roughly $3 million to pave 1 1/2 miles of road, but putting it toward the design event could bring in millions more than the original investment in jobs, tourism exposure, and, possibly, new ideas/projects coming out of the events.
Events expected for the world capital year include a street festival, a one-day celebration highlighting the winner’s designs and a design conference in April that is expected to bring people from around the globe.
Miro Copic, a marketing expert and professor at San Diego State University, was like a lot of people when the designation was announced: Wondering what the heck it was. But the more research he’s done on past design capitals, the more convinced he became that it was a prestige event coming to the region.
Copic had a simple reason for wanting to spend the money on the events: “You don’t want to be embarrassed.”
If next year’s World Design Capital gets even half the media attention of previous events, Copic reasons there will be dozens of international reporters in San Diego taking notes. Sprucing up the city, he reasons, could lead to a lot of good outcomes, including new business partnerships and future international events choosing San Diego.
The city’s staff report on the funding says the overall budget for the World Design Capital is $8 million to $10 million, with the bulk of funds coming from other non-city sources, such as donations. The staff report said the World Design Capital’s budget breaks down into toward support staff and operations (45 percent), marketing and branding of events (45 percent), and 10 percent for the implementation of events.
The city money given to the World Design Capital comes from Transient Occupancy Tax, or TOT, funds. Much of that comes from visitors to San Diego who spent a record $13.6 billion in 2022, said the San Diego Tourism Authority. However, that came as the number of visitors has yet to return to pre-pandemic levels.
Tourism Authority Chief Operating Officer Kerri Kapich said the designation is an opportunity to shine a new light on San Diego and Tijuana. It’s still not clear how many events San Diego will have — Valencia had more than 300 activities and 50 large exhibitions — so Kapich said it’s still unclear how many people might be coming.
“It’s not so much how many people will come, but what we can do from a storytelling perspective,” Kapich said. “It’s about getting the word out about San Diego and new ways of telling our story as we evolve as a region.”
The San Diego/Tijuana World Design Capital has a GoFundMe, but has raised only $2,850 of its $50,000 goal. The chief executive of World Design Capital San Diego-Tijuana said in a statement that the group was hopeful more donations are coming in.
“WDC 2024 is working with multiple regional partners to secure additional funding and to identify potential new partners whose goals and objectives align with those of World Design Capital San Diego Tijuana 2024,” Carlos de la Mora wrote. “We are confident that the significant investment being made by the City of San Diego will encourage our existing efforts while catalyzing new funding relationships.”
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