Avengers campus at DisneylandThe empty new Avengers Campus in Disneyland, which opened after the pandemic ended. Courtesy of Disneyland Resort

When COVID-19 companies shut down and traveled across the U.S., communities like Anaheim, which rely heavily on entertainment and tourism, were hardest hit. Hotel occupancy taxes, which make up more than half of the city’s budget, plummeted 90% between 2019 and 2020.

“We rely on large groups at Disneyland Angels Games,” said Jay Burress, president and CEO of Visit Anaheim, the city’s nonprofit tourism agency. “It was devastating for our industry and our city.”

With California Reopening on Tuesday until mostly full capacitythe travel and tourism industry is longing for a significant recovery. But experts are dampening expectations; Domestic travel will not fully recover until 2023, and the number of international tourists, particularly from China and Mexico, will remain less than half of pre-pandemic levels. And a full reopening won’t happen until big conventions return – no certainty in moving to remote working.

“Recovery as soon as possible is critical,” said Caroline Beteta, president and CEO of Visit California, a nonprofit that sponsors travel in the state. “California’s tourism industry provides more than 1 million jobs and supports thousands of businesses.”

The State Generated $ 144.9 billion in travel spending in 2019, according to a study by the travel and tourism research group Dean Runyan Associates. But when the pandemic broke out, travel and occupancy restrictions wiped out the profits that fueled California after the Great Recession.

While tourism declined 36% nationwide in 2020, California’s tourism revenue declined 55%, according to Dean Runyan. According to a report released in May 2020, more than half of the roughly 1.2 million employees in California’s tourism sector lost their jobs in the first month of the lockdown Law requiring companies to prioritize the reinstatement of people who have lost their jobs, and many workers hope to return to work.

Low cases, high vaccinations help reopen California tourism

Before the pandemic, the city of Anaheim had so many visitors, Burress said he feared they might be cited for congestion. Instead, the tourism director said that the past year felt more like a “zombie apocalypse”.

“We had record numbers in Anaheim and Orange Counties for six years,” said Burress. “Hotels were normally 90% occupied. And then it was in the single digits. “

The industry is already beginning to experience a certain recovery. That April was California’s recreational and hospitality sector more than 400,000 jobs Year for year. On the eve of the reopening on Monday, Governor Gavin Newsom performed in San Francisco’s historic Ferry Building, which attracted visitors with its artisanal food and restaurants. He noted that California’s economy outperformed other states, including Texas and Florida, this year because of their precautionary measures and vaccination campaigns. There is hope that the upward trend will continue.

“With one of the highest vaccination rates and lowest case numbers in the country, California is about to make a strong comeback,” Beteta said. “Leisure travelers will show the way. We assume that outdoor activities and road trips will be very popular. “

However, experts concede that the return to normal will not happen immediately, despite speculation about a second coming of the Roaring Twenties. While many restrictions have been lifted in California, they are not the only barriers facing vacationers.

California travel has not recovered

“The decline in visitor spending is not entirely due to store closures and restrictions,” Beteta said. “Consumers need to be ready to travel, and for much of 2020, more than half were not at all ready to go.”

Domestic travel to California is expected to surge to 75% of 2019 levels this year. However, according to the latest Tourism Economics, it is not expected to fully recover before 2023 report prepared for Visit California published in April.

International travel remains another question mark as other countries continue to struggle with the virus and travel restrictions remain in place. International travel to California fell 79% in 2020 and is projected to hit only 41% of 2019 levels this year, according to Tourism Economics. Travelers from Asia and Mexico make up two of the state’s largest spending groups, according to Visit California. Tourists from China alone spent $ 4 billion in California in 2019.

San Francisco is likely to be hardest hit by the loss of international travelers. Foreign visitors make up 61% of total city-wide overnight spending, the largest proportion of any major US city, according to data from the San Francisco Travel Association.

San Francisco is also the largest convention city in the state, typically generating $ 8.3 billion annually for hotel nights alone. However, experts believe conventions will be one of the last tourism industries to rebound this year, largely due to the fact that California is maintaining restrictions on indoor gatherings of more than 5,000 people through October 1.

Congress spending has a greater economic impact

The money generated by congresses is an integral part of the city.

“It’s important for the city’s health. It’s critical to our hotel and restaurant community, ”said Nicole Rogers, executive vice president and chief sales officer of the San Francisco Travel Association. “Although tourism is important to us – and we absolutely cannot function without it, the convention is on average a higher expense because the companies pay and the participants pay.”

Conferences at the Moscone Center in San Francisco can accommodate up to 10,000 participants at a time. But the economic impact is having a ripple effect. For example, more than 30,000 hotel rooms are booked every night during the annual Dreamforce conference of the San Francisco-based technology giant Salesforce. The city usually holds 50 to 60 large conventions a year. So far only two have been confirmed for this fall.

The future of convention spending in San Francisco depends on many things, such as customer loyalty. Some this year chose to hold their conventions in less restricted states like Texas and Florida. Other factors relate to how companies will decide about the future and whether they will continue to hold face-to-face meetings at all, especially as employees get used to working remotely.

CalMatters is a public interest journalism company dedicated to explaining how the California State Capitol works and why it matters.

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