COVID Pandemic Devastates San Francisco Tourism; Customer Spending Dropped By $eight Billion In 2020 – CBS San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) – It wasn’t long before the devastating impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on the normally buoyant San Francisco tourism industry was noticed in 2020.

Hotel rooms were closed, the Moscone Center became a mass vaccination site instead of holding conventions, the city’s famous cable cars were idle in their bin, and the gates at San Francisco International Airport were empty.

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With business restrictions now lifted, tourists should return in 2021, but how costly the pandemic was on Wednesday when the San Francisco Travel Association released its 2020 spending stats.

Only 10.2 million people visited San Francisco in 2020, a 61 percent decrease from a record high of 26.2 million in 2019. Total visitor spend was $ 2.3 billion, a decrease of 77 , 7 percent from a record high of $ 10.3 billion in 2019 including spending on meetings and conventions.

“After ten consecutive years of record results for the San Francisco tourism industry, 2020 was a devastating year,” said Joe D’Alessandro, President and CEO of San Francisco Travel.

“The results for 2020 are disappointing,” he continued. “At the end of the tunnel, however, there is light. Our market research shows that there is tremendous demand for travel around the world. We assume that demand in the domestic market will pick up first, followed by individual overseas markets. “

However, the emergence of new variants overseas will have a lasting impact on the industry in 2021.

“2021 will be another challenging year for our industry. We hope that we can steadily improve during a multi-year recovery until we get back to 2019 levels, ”said D’Alessandro.

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The San Francisco International Airport is full of travelers again, but the return has been slow. The airport served a total of 16.4 million passengers in 2020, a decrease of 71.4 percent from 57.5 million in 2019. International traffic fell by 78.7 percent from 2019 to 2020.

Average hotel occupancy using night care before COVID was 27.2 percent, a 67.2 percent decrease from 2019, while the average daily rate was $ 206.11, a 24.5 percent decrease.

“Bringing the convention business back to the city is one of our top priorities for the coming year,” said D’Alessandro.

The top five markets for 2020 visitor volume were Mexico, Canada, the United Kingdom, China and India. International visitors spent $ 829 million, down 83.8 percent from $ 5.1 billion in 2019.

Per capita, visitors spent $ 2,359.00 per inhabitant of San Francisco, compared to $ 10,820 in 2019. In 2020, visitors earned taxes of $ 732.00 per household in San Francisco, compared to $ 2,198 a year earlier .

The pandemic also had a devastating impact on thousands who work in the tourism industry and the city’s revenue.

The number of tourism-supported jobs in San Francisco decreased from 86,111 in 2019 to 20,880, a decrease of 75.8 percent.

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Meanwhile, the tourism industry generated $ 273.4 million in taxes and fees for San Francisco in 2020, down 66.6 percent from $ 819.7 million in 2019. The most important factors include hotel tax (43.6 percent) and property tax (33.1 percent).