San Francisco has one of its busiest convention busiest years this millennium with 2008 resulting in nearly one million hotel bookings. But while the effects of the economic recession seemed to have little impact on tourism to the city until very late in 2008, 2009 is already showing a precipitous drop in hotel bookings, and tourism and 2010 is expected to be one of the worst in decades.
Tourism is San Francisco’s greatest economic contributor and one look at all of the San Francisco tours traversing the city would reinforce that fact. A large part of that tourism business is the convention business through multi-building Moscone Center. The loss of convention business is taking the hit as a result of the economy, but taking a possible greater hit as a result of the backlash from corporate excesses. Even companies which might send their employees to conventions and to do business in the city, have scaled back significantly as part of a collective mindset, rather than any business rationale.
San Francisco’s budget is suffering as a result of the lost tax revenue from the loss of hotel tax revenue as well as the other tax sources from those visitors as they spend their way through the city on taxis, inn shops, and restaurants. This year’s hotel bookings are expected to be down from 2008’s nearly one million, to eight hundred thousand, and next year down to seven hundred thousand.
To combat the trend the San Francisco Convention and Visitors’ Bureau is working diligently to make such that the convention business that is already scheduled has the maximum turn-out and companies don’t pull back on participation or reduce the number of participants. The city’s mayor, Gavin Newsome, along with Convention Bureau officials, are also embarking on a national city tour with the hope of retaining and driving as much of the tourism and convention business as is possible in the current economic environment.
