Director, Visitor Experience

Director, Visitor Experience

The mission of the San Francisco Travel Association is to enhance the local economy by marketing San Francisco and the Bay Area as the premier destination for conventions, meetings events and leisure travel. We are the economic engine for the city, and travel is our fuel – it is solely our unique point of view as the city’s travel expert that allows us to see the entire destination rather than industry-by-industry. 

We are seeking a Director of Visitor Experience with a proven track record of exceeding customer expectations by creating unique information-delivery and retail experiences.

Briefly what you’ll be doing:

  • Responsible for identifying and leading entrepreneurial visitor engagement, outreach and service strategies that leverage social networks, media, retail merchandising, and methods of high appeal to the 21st century traveler.
  • Manage the daily operations of the Visitor Information Center (ViC) to insure appropriate staffing,  training, scheduling, service delivery, profitability and reporting to meet and respond effectively to changing needs of ViC visitors, to the expectations of our 1,600 members/partners, and to the evolving capabilities of SFTravel.
  • Regularly engage with the public (visitors, members and prospective members, travel writers, etc.) and with other members of the Marketing Division and other staff to establish, maintain and improve relationships with the ViC and promote community outreach initiatives.
  • Deepen engagement with the SF Travel Tourism Development team by providing regular feedback to improve the San Francisco and ViC experience for international visitors.
  • Co-develop a mobile strategy for visitor information to include apps, mobile site, texting programs, and location based programs.

What you’ll need to know:

  • Education and training equivalent to college graduate with business experience in the visitor services industry.  Public relations, market research and statistics experience helpful.
  • Background in branded retail merchandising with customer service orientation strongly preferred.
  • Fluency in English and one or more major European language, Japanese or Chinese/Mandarin to include strong conversational, writing and reading skills
  • Extensive knowledge of, and interest in, the City of San Francisco - historical as well as current.

If you think you’re the right candidate for this highly visible position, please provide us with the following:

  1. Cover letter (no more than two-pages, telling us why you’re the right person for this role)
  2. Detailed resume of your relevant experience – note that a resume sent without a well-written, thoughtful and functionally informative cover letter will only minimally be considered
  3. Past salary history and future income requirements and/or goals

Send to:

Email: first-impression@sanfrancisco.travel   with subject line being:  DVE

SnailMail: San Francisco Travel Association, 201 3rd Street, San Francisco CA 94103

To learn more about us, check out our website – http://www.sanfrancisco.travel.

For a detailed job description, go to http://www.sanfrancisco.travel/employment/Dir_VE.pdf