Earn $50,000 to live, love and share San Luis Obispo

Posted: Jan 9, 2013 6:36 PM by Keli Moore, KSBY News
Updated: Jan 10, 2013 6:43 AM

Do you love San Luis Obispo and need a job? The city is searching for an ambassador who will be paid $50,000 to be the face and voice of the community.

The campaign, or contest you might call it, is asking those interested to create a video. The public will then vote for their favorite contestant.

A few years ago Australia had a similar contest where the winner lived on an island and reported to a global audience via weekly blogs, photo diaries and video updates. San Luis Obispo decided to try something similar.

The goal of the campaign is to be visible, and to do that in this day in age, you need have a big online footprint.

The ambassador will tweet, blog, Facebook and post videos on YouTube about everything San Luis Obispo. They will attend events, become a foodie, check out hotels and share their experience with all.

San Luis Obispo's Tourism Business Improvement District is behind the campaign, but the ambassador will actually be an employee of the local marketing company, Rosetta.

So who pays the ambassador?

"These dollars do not come from the general fund. These are additional dollars that are collected for the purpose of marketing our hotels and our destination as San Luis Obispo," said Molly Cano, the tourism manager for San Luis Obispo. "It's a two percent tax that's collected from tourists when they stay in a hotel the money is pooled together for the purpose of marketing."

"To date there's just over a million dollars in the account. The fund has been around for the last six years," explained Cano.

The contest kicked off January 8, 2013 and videos be submitted until January 25, 2013. Voting will take place from January 25 until February 18. The top ten videos will move on to round two, the job application process, which will include in-person interviews. A committee will make the final decision. The winner will be announced March 1, 2013.

To apply for the ambassador job click here.