How Travel Santa Ana Mobilized Its Community with Learn Tourism

The Challenge

Travel Santa Ana needed a way to quickly educate and align city officials, hotel partners, and local stakeholders on the value of tourism in a community where destination marketing was entirely new. With limited prior promotion and a need to build trust, awareness, and engagement from the ground up, they sought a solution that could spark local pride and turn residents into informed advocates.

The Solution

Travel Santa Ana chose Learn Tourism after exploring options that could deliver scalable, locally relevant training with measurable impact. They were drawn to the ability to fully customize content, track learner engagement in real-time, and offer the course in an accessible, on-demand format. Unlike static training options or one-time workshops, Learn Tourism’s platform offered modular content, certification tracking, and brand-specific storytelling tools that aligned with Travel Santa Ana’s long-term vision.

Working closely with their team, we co-created the Certified Santa Ana Enthusiast course, integrating lessons on tourism's economic impact, Santa Ana's unique culture, and actionable ways for locals to engage. Key features like real-time analytics, pin reward fulfillment, and the ability to pause and resume learning addressed stakeholder concerns and boosted participation.

“You know I'll do my part to support Travel Santa Ana and this great campaign.”
— Logan C., The Frida Cinema

This collaborative approach enabled Travel Santa Ana to not only launch a high-quality training program, but also build a scalable model to support future initiatives like cannabis tourism education and consumer engagement.

The Results

After launching the Certified Santa Ana Enthusiast program, Travel Santa Ana saw immediate and measurable success. 185 locals enrolled, and 71% earned certification, demonstrating strong community engagement and interest in promoting their city. More than 122 participants requested official pins, signaling pride and public ownership of the designation.

Survey data revealed that 87% of respondents would recommend the course to others, and key audiences—board members, city officials, and hoteliers—gained clarity on Santa Ana’s unique value and Travel Santa Ana’s mission. The program not only educated but also helped build alignment across stakeholders in a city where tourism promotion was still a new concept.

“To better serve the visitors of Santa Ana.”
— Wendy H., Travel Santa Ana

This initiative laid the foundation for long-term destination awareness, future program expansions, and a citywide culture that values tourism as a vital economic and cultural asset.