Diversifying Sonoma County Tourism

Sonoma County is pretty well locked in on being a premium wine destination. But as many business leaders will tell you it's not always best to have all your eggs in one basket. So how does the county diversify? Unlike a business you can't go out and buy another company; you have to go with what you've got or can easily develop.

Here's what Sonoma County has that can easily be expanded further, as needed, or maybe just talk about it more so folks realize the options are here.

Food
Fresh seafood, family Italian, innovative dishes, French-inspired, American farm-to-table, $3 tacos. It's pretty much all here and of high-quality. A foodie paradise. This is known by people that have been here before, but maybe not so well-known by others.

Casual dinning in Sonoma County
Image from pressdemocrat.com

Beer
Russian River Brewery is one of the top breweries in the world, but there are a couple dozen other breweries worth checking out from the humongous Lagunitas to the tiny Shady Oak. Beer geeks know Sonoma County is one of the top beer destinations in the country. The general public may have heard of Lagunitas IPA and Pliny from Russian River, but don't know they are in Sonoma. Maybe the county needs a beer map. First is cooperation between the breweries to advertise nationally.

Cheese
There's already a cheese trail in western Sonoma and Marin counties. There are many artisanal local cheeses available in shops and groceries throughout the area. Petaluma has a cheese festival; there are cheese-making classes offered in various locales. This one should be easy enough to publicize, but not sure how many people would make cheese tasting a major part of their visit.

Cannabis
Well, this one is legal now and there are folks looking at ways to grow the local industry. To many though, the idea of bringing in "outsiders" to sample and buy marijuana isn't something they want to accept. That hasn't stopped the wine industry and cannabis industry from getting together and talking about how to leverage from each other.

A western Sonoma County scene
image from pressdemocrat,.com

Sightseeing
Coast, hills, rivers, valleys, vineyards, redwoods are all pretty picturesque as most have seen photos from some of these features of Sonoma County. Many visitors do have vineyards, the coast and redwood in their itinerary, but not as a major part of what's usually their wine tasting trip. This feature of the area can certainly be pushed harder as another reason to visit, but will probably never be a key part of a tourism campaign because, well, there's not that much money to be from people walking a beach trail vs. eating and drinking their way through the county.