Once sleepy Paso Robles coming into its own as world-class tourism destination | Bakersfield Life

“I have experienced a tasting place in downtown Paso for six yrs and have witnessed a ton of transform, but the pace appears to be to have picked up a good deal in the final calendar year or so,” suggests Glenna Thompson, owner and winemaker at Symbiosis Wines.

“When I moved in, we experienced 13 tasting rooms downtown, and the newest map displays 29,” Thompson states. “Lots of of these are new, lots of the previous kinds are long gone, and now wine bars are integrated as perfectly.”

Journey Paso, which costs by itself as the city’s leading spot advertising and marketing business, confirms that anything interesting is happening in the city of close to 32,000 citizens. In fiscal year 2021, Paso’s transient occupancy tax — the community tax travelers pay out when they continue to be in lodges, RV resorts or small-expression rentals — produced a document $7 million in revenue from readers to Paso.

In fiscal year 2019, the most new pre-pandemic year, complete TOT reached $6 million virtually on the dot, suggests Mike Dawson, media strategist for Journey Paso.

And expanding customer demand from customers appears to be spurring expansion in the lodging sector. In fact, in accordance to Dawson, there had been 1,453 lodge rooms in 2019. Currently, Paso Robles has 1,748 lodge rooms.

Stacie Jacob, Vacation Paso’s govt director, also cited the city’s cultural events, marquee concerts (Jason Mraz performs at Vina Robles on July 5) and artwork displays these kinds of as the Subject of Mild at Sensorio.

“Thanks to its planet-class wineries, its award-winning restaurants and lodging alternatives, its proximity to the beach front, and a extensive array of ordeals from Sensorio to e-bicycle excursions in the vineyard to our craft distillery path, Paso Robles has turn out to be a ought to-stop by vacation spot,” Jacob states. “Even though we have turn out to be a national and even worldwide desired destination, a single of our critical core audiences continues to be to be our drive-industry, which include of program Bakersfield and the Central Valley, as well as the Bay Region, L.A. and San Diego.”

Thompson at Symbiosis Wines suggests competing in Paso’s new reality is not all wine and roses for a “a person-woman demonstrate” like hers. The visual appearance of huge-income traders is a double-edged sword.

“I am observing get together buses daily on the road now, which has under no circumstances took place in advance of,” she says. “Viewing how quite a few people in this group are generating their 1st vacation to Paso really highlights how issues are booming.”

It is straightforward for the “compact fellas” to resent holidaymakers flocking to company-run wineries, she suggests.

“Their national promoting and substantial budgets have truly introduced Paso into the limelight, and I am certain the phenomenon we are witnessing has a good deal to do with that.”