SLO LIFE Magazine Apr/May 2018

| Q&A
BOARDROOM TO BOARDWALK
The San Luis Obispo County Visitors & Conference Bureau is on the move after
rebranding itself with a new name—SLO CAL—and a new $4 million annual
budget, which comes as a result of its recently created marketing assessment that
charges guests at local hotels a 1% fee designated for promoting the county to
tourists. And, if one thing is for certain, CHUCK DAVISON, the organization’s chief
executive, practices what he preaches, as six years ago he walked away from a
lucrative corporate life to move his family to Pismo Beach. Recently, he stopped by
to talk about his transition from boardroom to boardwalk, his views on diversity, his
faith, and what to do about Diablo Canyon. Here is some of what he had to say...
Tell us, Chuck, where are you from? I was born
and raised in Las Vegas. My family has been there
about 85 years. My great-grandfather moved out
there to be a foreman at Boulder Dam, which
became Hoover Dam. I spent the first half of my
career working in the gaming industry, casinos.
Then I ran four properties for Carl Icahn. Loved
Vegas, still do; lived there a long time. Spent the
last five years there in corporate America as the
General Manager of North America for Expedia.
I was traveling 28 days per month.
So, how did you end up here? In 2006, my wife
and I came to Pismo Beach for the first time for
a vacation. I remember sitting on the patio with
a glass of wine looking at the ocean and saying,
“Who are these people that get to live here?
Because this is the best of California—no people,
no smog, no traffic.” So, six years ago, when I was
40, I said to my wife, “What if we just moved to
Pismo Beach?” We didn’t know one person, didn’t
have a job. Had no idea how we were going to
do it. We decided we’d figure it out. It was the
hardest two years of my life. Trying to become
relevant in this county when you’re not third
generation, didn’t go to Cal Poly, didn’t move
here for a job, is a tough thing. We drained tons
of savings. I had plenty of opportunities to do
consulting, which would have meant traveling
again, but the idea was that I wanted to spend
time with my family—be a dad.
Tell us about your family. I’m married and have
four girls. We’re born again Christians. We always
grew up going to church. My wife’s father was a
pastor. In a world today that seems so challenged,
it’s what drives us and helps us get through. We
love the fact that we live in a community where
not everybody thinks the same way as us. That’s
awesome. I think that the ability to be able to sit
down with somebody, across the table, even when
you think about things differently, and have a
conversation like you and I are doing now; rather
than what is taking place in the world today
where, because your faith doesn’t line up with
mine or your political viewpoint doesn’t line up
with mine, we can’t even be friends? We’re trying
to raise our kids in an environment where, hey,
not everybody thinks the same, but we should
love everybody the exact same way as God loves
us. So, yes, it’s a big part of our life. And trying to
be better tomorrow than we were today is a big
thing for us.
Let’s talk business. What challenges do we
face? Looking ahead with all of the things we
need to do to be successful, particularly with the
closure of Diablo Canyon, we just cannot produce
enough homegrown talent in this market. We
have to import people, there’s no way around
it. Our county does a really good job of being
friendly on the surface, but the ability to go
deeper in a relationship can be challenging if you
are not in that circle already. We’ve got to do a
better job as a community of embracing those
people, embracing diversity. And, the people that
we need to move into this county don’t necessarily
look like us. Quite frankly, one of the hardest
things for us, when we took our daughters to
Shell Beach Elementary for their first day of
school after we moved here from Las Vegas was
finding that 99.9% of the kids there were white.
We said, “What in the world is this? Where’s
everybody else? Where’s the rest of the world?”
What does tourism mean to us locally? It’s
the number one economic driver in the county
outside of agriculture. And, I would argue that if
you removed wine from ag and put it in tourism,
ag wouldn’t even be a close second. Overall,
tourism was worth $1.59 billion last year. It’s huge.
Over 18,000 jobs here are tied to tourism and
hospitality—that’s one out of every eight jobs. In a
county with less than 300,000 people, we wouldn’t
have so many of our great restaurants, and wineries,
and activities without tourists. We just don’t have
the population to support it. But, we get to enjoy
all of these amazing assets because we have a
tourism community that helps carry the weight.
But, for me, ultimately it’s about protecting and
improving the quality of life for people who live in
San Luis Obispo County. So, how do we make sure
that we continue to create opportunity, and growth,
and financial responsibility in the market; and, how
do we do it in a way that protects the culture, and
the history, and the environment, and the quality
of life that all of us have come to love and is the
reason we call this place home. SLO LIFE
34 | SLO LIFE MAGAZINE | APR/MAY 2018