I truly wanted to start out with the positive, however, that’s not the case as Borrego Springs once again has to face the battle of keeping another Sexually Violent Predator out of the area. A Chamber community eblast was sent on June 1 regarding what Borregans need to do and the Borrego Sun has it covered as well. If you would like a copy of the eblast, email borregochamberdirector@gmail.com and a copy will be sent right away. Letters and comments must be sent to the appropriate parties by June 15, 2022.

I will not let that thwart the positive. Recently, two amazing opportunities for Borrego Springs came the Chamber’s way. Many of you don’t realize (and probably never thought about it) that when the pandemic hit, the travel media world was hit even harder. Travel came to a stop and advertising dollars dried up. Journalists were let go, many retired, others moved into different genres of news. The media pool of travel writers, bloggers, radio shows and television in a sense dried up. Many past associations were gone because of no outlets for their work.

In the past two years, I have worked tirelessly to keep Borrego Springs relevant, working with media that hung on to whatever they could, making new connections, building new marketing strategies and associates and more, all in an effort to keep the local economy going. It has been challenging because media and advertising is an area that when people see results they often don’t attribute its origin.

With that said, I’m proud to say our association with Visit California is better than ever. Our digital footprint is regularly on platforms with over 500,000 followers, and we are carefully placing advertising dollars that bring people to Borrego and grow the economy. The process is the snowball effect, if someone else is talking about it, the others want to also.

I’m excited to announce that Borrego Springs will be featured in the summer issue of Food & Travel national publication...why summer, because of our Dark Sky Community. This publication has an 800,000 print circulation and a mind boggling digital presence. Even though the story theme is dark skies, the story will be about what there is to do in Borrego.

Next up, Samantha Brown’s Travel Show on the Discovery Channel (National audience of 81 million) will be coming to Borrego in June to film for an upcoming segment about small communities with a lot to offer visitors. At this time, I won’t be releasing filming dates, but make sure your business is looking good! To sign up for the free Chamber Weekly eblast sent every Wednesday and available for everyone, send an email to visitborrego@gmail.com with the word eblast in the subject line, we’ll do the rest.

Françoise Rhodes,

Executive Director

– Borrego Springs Chamber of Commerce & Welcome Center

760-767-5555

visitborrego@gmail.com

borregospringschamber.com

#embraceborrego