The County of San Bernardino held a Tourism Summit on Wednesday, March 23, 2016, at the Joshua Tree Community Center.

    The originally scheduled keynote speaker, Ed Fuller, CEO of the Orange County Visitors Association, was unable to attend due to medical reasons.

    The meeting's speakers, Brittney Carter of Visit California; Michelle McCue, President of McCue Communications (silhouetted in the left photo); Mike Gorman, Account Director of McCue Communications; and Sharon Kellogg of the Southern California Automobile Club's Westways magazine, the 8th largest circulated magazine in the United States; provided an interesting and information packed summit.

    The previous county Tourism Summit was held 17-months earlier in October 2014.  Originally planned to be held once each year, Monique Carter has announced a new target of having an economic update meeting twice each year.

    The five leading countries as sources of tourists in California last year were: (1) Mexico, (2) Canada, (3) China, (4) Germany, and (5), South Korea.

    Tourism's impact upon California's economy in 2015 was $120-billion.

    The Newberry Springs Community Alliance had two representatives at this important tourist development event.  No other Newberry Springs organization was represented.