“Best” of Santa Barbara…
Every year, a local Santa Barbara newspaper, The Independent does a Best of Edition. There are a lot of different categories and a few rounds of voting. There is the prelim voting round, where you can get your company or someone else’s company voted on the ballot and then the real voting round. For the real voting, someone has to cast 20 different votes to make their vote count. I don’t even know how many votes it takes to win. Each category probably needs a different amount of votes to win.
Our category is: Out & About –> Best Tour Company.
It recently occurred to me that to vote for the best of anything could be a popularity contest or maybe the company just has a familiar name? Or there is no one else to vote for? I mean, it is all kind of open. Also, there are A LOT of different kinds of tours. Wine tours, trolly tours, walking tours, kayaking tours, hiking tours, ghost tours, you get the gist. There are a TON of wine tours in this area there is also a category specific to …
Yes, WINE TOURS. Yup. Nailed it.
A wine tour can be in both the Best Wine Tour category and Best Tour Company. Riddle me this, can a food & wine tour also be in the Wine Tour category? Hey, why not?
Do we think these things are rigged? Not by the Indie itself, but by something else. Let me explain.
Categories used to be things that were just located in Santa Barbara. NOW, you have to vote on like 20 things to make your vote count AND it’s not just things in Santa Barbara, it’s extended to a wider area. OMG AND a lot of companies can get themselves into multiple categories (LUCKY!). Every year I try to get Taste Santa Barbara Food Tours on the Best of ballet and we’ve made it every year under the category of Best Tour Company.
Food tours are mixed in with all the tours…
Tours THAT ARE NOTHING alike. Food tours and experiences seem to be kind of a newer trend to the US (not really, but they are getting more popular). However, kayak tours, bike tours, wine tours, Land Shark tours, Duck tours, Trolly tours, walking tours, farm tours, farmer’s market tours, docent tours, self guided tours, are all nothing new. They’ve been around forever and are cheaper, because let’s be real, who would want to start a food tour? Only a crazy person would want to start a food tour in this day and age. There is so much that goes into the back end of a food tour that no one thinks about….
Best of 2023…
You can vote for best beaches, restaurants, wine bars, tasting rooms, bars, realtors, even loan officers. Best parks, best walks, best hiking trails, best salons, best tattoos, best nails, best spas, best massages, best pre school, best dog park, best pizza, best sushi, best coffee, best romantic place.
There are so many different and random categories. We never actually except to win for the best tour company when we are up against companies that are much more known and do more mainstream tours, but it is always fun to try. Maybe one day we actually will wine the bet tour company, but for now we are just having fun.