Mendocino County is wide open. In fact, the vastness of the coast is the theme of the new “Room to Roam” visitor campaign.

“As we open up and have festivals and somehow get back to business as usual, we’re going to make sure the events we run are not excessive nor very big,” said Travis Scott, General Manager of Visit Mendocino County.

The “Room to Roam” campaign runs until the end of September and costs $ 27,000 a month.

“We’re not just going to open the floodgates and have a huge event with 500 or 1,000 people,” said Scott. “We’ll keep them small and intimate anyway.”

Part of this hesitant decision is to remain “socially responsible” as resources such as health care are limited in the county.

“If we look forward to marketing and the return of tourism, we need to be careful not to do it in a way that will negatively affect us,” he said. “We also want travelers to know that we are open to business, but we try to be smart, respectful and be aware of what we have just come out of so we don’t end up in it again.”

The slower pace also helps Mendocino County’s tourism businesses, which are just as challenged as other travel destinations.

“It was a wild ride. It really did, ”said Scott Schneider, General Manager of the Noyo Harbor Inn & Restaurant in Fort Bragg. Operating the HarborView Bistro & Bar restaurant has become a balancing act, he said. “We run out of groceries almost every night (due to) supply chain problems.”

To adapt, he does everything from downsizing the menu to limiting the number of diners.

“We turn people away every night. I never thought that we would ever do that, ”said Schneider. “For a while it was about personnel issues. Now I think we have a lot of staff, but we don’t have enough food. “

On the day he spoke to the Journal, Schneider was preparing to record a promo on the local radio station – one that was carefully worded and encouraged visitors to reserve in advance.

“At this point, it’s more about controlling demand than attracting more people,” he said. This is an unusual marketing message, but necessary, also because he does not want to upset the local community. “We’re not the only ones. Everyone has a hard time keeping up with the demand. “

Cally Dym, the fifth generation owner of the Little River Inn and 65-room restaurant, agrees.

“We take care of anyone who wants to come, but the restaurant sells out every night,” said Dym, whose husband, Marc Dym, is the head chef. “We are still unable to freshen up your room during your stay. We haven’t served breakfast yet. So there are many of these small details that we cannot fully implement yet. “

Recruiting is the biggest business challenge, said Dym.

“I think we have a reputation for being a really good place to work, especially in the hospitality industry,” said Dym, who currently employs around 80 people, up from 110 before COVID-19. “We offer social benefits, vacation pay and a lot that is not really standard, at least in our area.”

However, Dym has also found some positive findings from the past year.

“Being closed 365 days a year after more than 80 years of business shutdown was a really great opportunity to reassess everything,” she said. “Just things like our food on the terrace outside. We never had that. It’s something we definitely keep. “

One of the main tourist attractions in the county is the Mendocino Railways’ Skunk Train, a 135-year-old historic train line that once brought giant trunks of redwood to the rugged Mendocino coastline. Today, passengers travel along estuaries and over bridges into the heart of the sequoia trees, through centuries of largely untouched terrain with trees more than 1,000 years old.

According to Robert Jason Pinoli, President of Mendocino Railways and Chief Skunk on the Skunk Train, which runs from Fort Bragg to Willits, the attraction will start a 3.5 mile hiking trail from its Fort Bragg depot this summer.

“One of the really interesting things is that this business is unlike any other,” he said. “It has certainly seen its ups and downs. We are certainly not isolated from all that stuff. “

The Skunk Train excursions also include outdoor rail bikes and open-top trains that helped with business during the pandemic.

“We look forward to welcoming visitors … and we are also looking for ways to develop our business (as it is) just as relevant over the next 136 years. With such a legacy operation, the point is to expand one’s experience and not to stagnate. “

During the pandemic, Scott said he saw the small county’s hospitality industry – which is pretty competitive in normal times – come together.

“My accommodation industry definitely met every Monday. And they still meet and talk about guidelines and they talk about safe working and human resource issues, ”he said. “I’m really proud of the way our industry handled the Mendocino County pandemic, not just as an industry, but as a team.”

Cheryl Sarfaty covers tourism, hospitality, healthcare, and education. She previously worked for a gannett newspaper in New Jersey and NJBIZ, the state business magazine. Cheryl has worked for business magazines in Sacramento, Silicon Valley, San Francisco, and Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from California State University at Northridge. You can reach them at cheryl.sarfaty@busjrnl.com or 707-521-4259.