Monterey in Top 10 on travel report list, coming in at No.1 for golf destinations

Whether you want to hit the beach or hit the links. Monterey County’s got you covered.

“Yesterday, I went to Pebble Beach and we played golf. I really had a great time there,” said Dahye Seo, who is visiting from South Korea.

For many, it came as no surprise that U .S. News and World Report ranks the Monterey Peninsula as the No. 1 golf destination, No. 4 for weekend getaways and the sixth best small town to visit.

“I would agree with that. It’s a great place. I would invite anybody to come down to Carmel, Monterey,” said Bruce Leonard of Sacramento.

“I’d like to think we deserve to be recognized as a destination like that all the time,” said Tammy Blount, CEO of the Monterey Convention and Visitors Bureau.

But how does the county do it? Those behind the scenes said it’s about targeting the right people for the right time.

“We do a lot of research on who our customers are, who has the highest propensity to visit. So we do a visitor’s profile study. We do a lot of research to find out who has the most possibility to come and visit us during the time we need visitors versus the times when we are already busy,” Blount said.

As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words, and in this case, the right picture on social media can also help attract visitors to Monterey County.

“Instead of buying an ad, we will have someone come and experience our wine country and write about it,” Blount said. “And then pushing content through social media, like Facebook or Instagram, and amplifying those messages so that is more peer-to-peer discussion than just us talking about the destination and hoping somebody would come.”

Blount said the bureau is working with partners in the Bay Area to help draw tourists down to Monterey.