Hail the Turista!

I remember when the City's economy had more vibrant manufacturing and shipping industries but that's not what this blog is about.

We all know that our economy depends heavily on the "tourist trade" and a recently published survey by the San Francisco Travel Association reports some positive data collected over the course of 2010 which I share with you.

• 15.92 million people visited the City (up 3.1% from the prior year).

• that's an average of 126,931 tourists each day and with a population of just over 800,000 that means on an average day 14% of the people walking around are tourists

• 75% of those surveyed advised they were here for "leisure" purposes and 7.1% for "conventions"

• 70.2% were of domestic origin. Top overseas "feeder markets" were Canada (11.9%); UK (11.6%); Australia (8.0%) and Germany (7.0%)

• over half the visitors are under 45 years old (average age 41.4 years) and are affluent with an annual HH income of $98,591.

• more than 50% stayed four nights or more and the average stay is 4.5 nights

And as for the economic impact:

• Tourists spent $8.34 billion (up 6.2% from the prior year)

• generating $485 million in City taxes (up 4%)

• 67,122 jobs were supported by tourism (about 13% of the total daytime workforce)

• hotel guests spend an average of $240 per person per day
  

And what do they like about San Francisco? Of course it's the "ambiance/atmosphere" (18.6%); "scenic beauty" (18.3%); "arts/culture" (12%); and "cuisine" (11.9%)

And what don't they like about San Francisco? By far "homelessness and panhandling" (25.4%) was the number one response followed by "cold and windy weather" (10.1%).

But despite those negatives, thankfully 98.3% say they would return so...

Hail the Turista!