BY PEPPER FISHER
Port Angeles – The Lodging Tax Advisory Committee (LTAC) of Port Angeles has recommended to the City Council that they award the next Destination Marketing contract to local company, Wander Fuca.
Their choice appears to be a great fit for Port Angeles, which has for years been giving the contract to companies outside of the peninsula and even outside the state of Washington.
Wander Fuca is co-working space in the heart of downtown, owned by Kylan and Breck Johnson. The couple and their 4 kids moved to Port Angeles from Portland, Oregon about 5 years ago, although Breck is a Sequim native. We spoke with Kylan about his career as a marketing consultant, Wander Fuca, and what he thinks he’ll bring to the table as the City’s new Destination Marketing Director.
“So, Wander Fuca originally, for us, was just a community space where we can start to bring some of the voices of remote workers, entrepreneurs, some of the people that maybe traditionally, kind of, hide out in Port Angeles, and don’t necessarily have a space to kind of network and connect. Over the last three years it’s kind of been an evolution of, you know, adjusting to where the real demand is here in Port Angeles, and how to make it something that fits, kind of, the needs of creative professionals, entrepreneurs, and remote workers that are living here. So, that’s kind of where we got started.”
Besides Wander Fuca, the Johnson’s have another enterprise which is a growing hit with toddlers and their parents. Breck Johnson plays Brecky Breck, the YouTube children’s personality with over 250,000 subscribers.
With a lot of irons in the fire, Kylan says he and Breck don’t plan to take this next step alone.
“You know, it’s not just me and/or my wife. We have a couple of people on our team that we’re bringing in as kind of strategic team members that represent a good balance of both marketing and also tourism experience. And in a way, we get to prove that the people are here to step into these roles, and I think that’s what I get excited about. Especially with this contract is, I feel like this is the City saying, “Hey, we’re willing to invest in our locals here.” So, there are opportunities for us to put our heads together and start contributing to the growth of our economy as a whole.”
It should be noted that the City Council still has to approve the committee’s recommendation, and that’s expected to happen in the next regular session.
(Photo courtesy of Kylan Johnson)