Kudos to the San Pedro Convention & Visitors Bureau which announced today that the USS Iowa Veterans Association will be staying in San Pedro this summer after all. Final details were nailed down just last night.
We ran a story late last year about how the group wasn't able to find enough centralized space in any of the San Pedro hotels. So they were likely going to take an offer from one of the Long Beach hotels and plan to shuttle across the harbor to San Pedro where the historic
ship is expected to be open for some tours.
Enter Scott and Katherine Gray who founded the convention and visitors bureau in 2009. They worked through the holidays pulling together hotel and other packages to rival Long Beach, eventually winning the group over.
From Scott Gray of the bureau:
"The reunion coming here is the result of a great deal of hard work -- especially after we were told that it would be going to a neighboring town. We did all we could to ensure that the veterans were presented with a package of services and accommodations that met their needs."
From U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Jerry Gneckow, president of the association:
"We wanted to be as close to the ship as possible. This is a great opportunity to express our appreciation to the people of San Pedro and the people that made it possible for the ship to come to San Pedro as a memorial and museum."
Councilman Joe Buscaino was called in to meet with one of the veterans' group members as part of the winter-long campaign to woo the sailors to San Pedro instead of Long Beach.
The week-long July 2012 reunion will be headquartered at the Doubletree Hotel at the Cabrillo Marina (and using rooms in other San Pedro hotels as well) with the bureau providing "all ground arrangements and destination management services."
But that's not all.
This is planned as a key piece of an overall Independence Week celebration being put together by the bureau, designed to draw other visitors from around the country.
"We're talking about destination travel," said Dave Behar, chairman of the bureau's advisory board. With the veterans deal sealed last night, "all of the other pieces of the puzzle" will now become the focus, he said.
"This will be a full Independence Week celebration," Behar said. "The veterans are centric to that, but this is meant to involve people from all over. We're talking about a national holiday and a destination tourism-driven event. This is really an awesome thing for the town."
The USS Iowa is expected to arrive in San Pedro sometime around March or April, according to the nonprofit Pacific Battleship Center. The ship, which is planned to be at Berth 87 near the fireboat station in the Main Channel along Harbor Boulevard near First Street, is still undergoing restoration but a tentative grand opening is planned for July 4.
We ran a story late last year about how the group wasn't able to find enough centralized space in any of the San Pedro hotels. So they were likely going to take an offer from one of the Long Beach hotels and plan to shuttle across the harbor to San Pedro where the historic
ship is expected to be open for some tours.Enter Scott and Katherine Gray who founded the convention and visitors bureau in 2009. They worked through the holidays pulling together hotel and other packages to rival Long Beach, eventually winning the group over.
From Scott Gray of the bureau:
"The reunion coming here is the result of a great deal of hard work -- especially after we were told that it would be going to a neighboring town. We did all we could to ensure that the veterans were presented with a package of services and accommodations that met their needs."
From U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Jerry Gneckow, president of the association:
"We wanted to be as close to the ship as possible. This is a great opportunity to express our appreciation to the people of San Pedro and the people that made it possible for the ship to come to San Pedro as a memorial and museum."
Councilman Joe Buscaino was called in to meet with one of the veterans' group members as part of the winter-long campaign to woo the sailors to San Pedro instead of Long Beach.
The week-long July 2012 reunion will be headquartered at the Doubletree Hotel at the Cabrillo Marina (and using rooms in other San Pedro hotels as well) with the bureau providing "all ground arrangements and destination management services."
But that's not all.
This is planned as a key piece of an overall Independence Week celebration being put together by the bureau, designed to draw other visitors from around the country.
"We're talking about destination travel," said Dave Behar, chairman of the bureau's advisory board. With the veterans deal sealed last night, "all of the other pieces of the puzzle" will now become the focus, he said.
"This will be a full Independence Week celebration," Behar said. "The veterans are centric to that, but this is meant to involve people from all over. We're talking about a national holiday and a destination tourism-driven event. This is really an awesome thing for the town."
The USS Iowa is expected to arrive in San Pedro sometime around March or April, according to the nonprofit Pacific Battleship Center. The ship, which is planned to be at Berth 87 near the fireboat station in the Main Channel along Harbor Boulevard near First Street, is still undergoing restoration but a tentative grand opening is planned for July 4.
