By Emily Haerter <\/p>\n
Look out California, Visit Sacramento is determined to turn the Capital into the next serious tourist destination.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Whether it\u2019s featuring Aftershock<\/a>, the largest rock and metal festival on the West Coast, or the exciting Ironman triathlon competitions, the 99-year-old organization is constantly finding ways to show off the City of Trees.<\/p>\n Visit Sacramento is a Destination Marketing Organization for Sacramento city and county, also known as a DMO. Its purpose is to bring in visitors to the area by highlighting its culture, food and community through big events.<\/p>\n \u201cSacramento is this sort of ideal blend of a city with a lot going on and plenty to explore, while also remaining approachable,\u201d said Kari Miskit, Visit Sacramento\u2019s Chief Operating Officer. \u201cYou will feel like a part of the fabric here really in no time, even if you\u2019re a visitor.\u201d<\/p>\n And Miskit\u2019s organization is finding avenues for out-of-towners to feel that connection: All of the conventions at the SAFE Credit Union Center in downtown have been planned by Visit Sacramento, with Comic Con and Shen Yun being some of the biggest hits.\u00a0<\/p>\n In recent years, Sacramento has also been dubbed America\u2019s Farm-to-Fork Capital. Visit Sacramento has helped realize that potential through hosting corresponding events, including the annual Tower Bridge Dinner. In 2025, Visit Sacramento partnered with Slow Food to create the first Terra Madre Americas event in Sacramento. That was one of the largest conferences and events in the U.S. focused on food and drink experiences, chef demonstrations<\/a> and expert panels. For Visit Sacramento, it was yet another step in making the city a culinary destination that attracts foodie visitors from far and wide.<\/p>\n Miskit thinks one aspect of Sacramento that makes it a hidden gem is that tourism here doesn\u2019t feel as \u201cobvious\u201d as it does in San Francisco or Los Angeles. She also notes that tourism is a significant reason that smaller businesses in Sacramento survive.<\/p>\n \u201cVisitation comes from conventions, sports events, music festivals, even people coming to eat in a Michelin-rated restaurant,\u201d Miskit reflected. \u201cMost of our favorite neighborhood places can\u2019t survive on local support alone; they need the boost of visitors to really make it work these days.\u201d<\/p>\n To make sure that happens, Visit Sacramento needs a mission-driven team working towards the same strategic goals.\u00a0<\/p>\n Stacey Kauffman is the organization\u2019s Executive Advisor. She notes that Sacramento is often vying for conferences and conventions, and the stakes around landing those events involve the area\u2019s long-term sustainability.<\/p>\n \u201cWe compete for events the way other cities compete for industry,\u201d Kauffman observed.<\/p>\n Another way Visit Sacramento helps to make the region competitive is by operating a website that\u2019s rich with hotels, day trips, museums and eateries that range from fine dining to dive bars. With visitor guides available at the end of a click, locals or non-locals alike can tune in to the events and activities happening in the city.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cOne of our greatest strengths is diversity,\u201d Kauffman pointed out. \u201cThat shows up in our food, our neighborhoods, our arts and our celebrations.\u201d<\/p>\n So, how is Sacramento striking new visitors these days?\u00a0<\/p>\n This writer recently caught up with a group of tourists, one of which was Bree Pasefika. She was visiting Sacramento from San Diego due to a work conference. Pasefika had made her way to the city\u2019s old town riverfront and mentioned enjoying its historic architecture.\u00a0<\/p>\n Another person walking the riverfront that day was Elijah Williams, who has lived in Sacramento since 2006. He\u2019s come to realize that Sacramento has a lot of sights to see, while its community, in his view, is warm and engaging. Williams has heard of the Terra Madre Americas dinner, and he\u2019s personally attended Aftershock, though he didn\u2019t know both events had major funding from Visit Sacramento.<\/p>\n For Miskit and Kauffman\u2019s team, the engagement is more important than who gets credit for it. Upcoming events that Visit Sacramento is involved with include the Capitol Beer Fest on March 7, Sac Comic Con on March 21, and March 22 and the NCAA Division I Women\u2019s Basketball Regionals<\/a> that runs between Mar 27 and March. The year-round event page for the organization can be found here.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201c[This city] sits at the center of one of the largest economies in the world, yet the culture here is grounded, welcoming, and authentic,\u201d Kauffman said. \u201cWhat you find in Sacramento is community pride and approachability.\u201d<\/p>\n This story is part of the Solving Sacramento <\/a>journalism collaborative. This story was funded by the City of Sacramento\u2019s Arts and Creative Economy Journalism Grant to Solving Sacramento<\/a>. Following our journalism code of ethics, the city had no editorial influence over this story. Our partners include California Groundbreakers, Capital Public Radio, Hmong Daily News, Outword, Russian America Media, Sacramento Business Journal, Sacramento News & Review and Sacramento Observer. Sign up for our \u201cSac Art Pulse\u201d newsletter here<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Emily Haerter Look out California, Visit Sacramento is determined to turn the Capital into the next serious…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":207110,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122,93865],"class_list":{"0":"post-207109","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sacramento","8":"tag-sacramento","9":"tag-sacramento-headlines","10":"tag-sacramento-news","11":"tag-visit-sacramento"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}