Tourism Chief Takes Job in Palm Springs

Ventura’s tourism bureau director will leave this budding tourism destination for one of the nation’s leading tourist draws.

Bill Clawson announced Thursday he will leave at the end of May for a position in Palm Springs.

“I love Ventura, and the past four years here have been terrific, but I’ve been offered the position of a lifetime at a world-class resort destination and would be foolish to pass it up,” Clawson said in a statement.

Clawson will take over as the executive director of Palm Springs Tourism, the promotion agency serving the city of Palm Springs. He also has been named a vice president of Leisure Management International, a company managing the city’s tourism promotion efforts.

Clawson said he is proud of his accomplishments in Ventura, citing a 32% increase in bed tax revenues over the past three years as hotel and motel sales rose from $17.2 million in 1994 to nearly $23 million last year.

Clawson came to Ventura from Pismo Beach in August 1994.

Last year, the Ventura Convention and Visitors Bureau’s advertising campaign, “The 50 Coolest Places in Ventura,” was named the top campaign of 1997 by the Western Assn. of Convention and Visitors Bureaus.