The first director of Nevada’s Department of Tourism and Cultural Affairs has quit to take up the challenge of promoting tourism in a portion of California’s fire-devastated Wine Country.
Claudia Vecchio, who headed the Department of Tourism after it was formed from the state Commission on Tourism, the Division of Museums and History, the Nevada Arts Council and the Nevada Indian Commission, will be the new president and CEO of Sonoma County Tourism as of November 1.
Vecchio said she accepted the job on September 29, two days before a gunman opened fire on an outdoor concert on the Las Vegas Strip, killing 58 and wounding nearly 500 in the worst mass shooting in U.S. history and a week before wild fires broke out in and around the Wine Country, destroying thousands of homes and other buildings and killing at least 23 people.
“It’s really been an incident-filled couple of weeks,” she said. “It kind of delayed having anything appropriate in terms of an announcement. There were more important things to deal with than this move.”
Acting Sonoma County Tourism CEO Tim Zahner said, ““Our farmers, restaurants, winemakers, tour guides and hoteliers are all ready to continue providing the world-class experiences for which Sonoma County is famous. We look forward to her leadership and experience as we build on that momentum.”
David Peterson has been named to replace Vecchio in Nevada on an interim basis until a search for a new director is launched later this year.
