25 million visitors graced the Fine American City of San Francisco in 2015, marveling at our hills, gaping at our bridges, and in some instances, choking on our stench.
The Examiner published the numbers from the San Francisco Travel Association, who congratulated themselves heartily, with Joe D’Alessandro, president and CEO, remarking that, "These record-breaking numbers once again prove that tourism is the most important industry in San Francisco.” Has this guy heard of our technology industry? We have a technology industry.
Though the record visitors spent $9.3 billion in San Francisco according to the Travel Association, that was actually less than 2014's crowd of just 18 million tourists spent. According to to a report from last year, that group pissed away $9.4 billion. Come on, 2015 guests — why so stingy?
5.8 million tourists came to our shores for business — remember that technology industry? we've got one! — while 18.9 million arrived for pleasure. We also have pleasure here.
Frisco, as wise tourists were careful not to call it, also netted $738 million in taxes and fees, which was a 12.8 percent increase from 2014. Thanks for paying those hotel taxes, Airbnb, you truly do love SF, do you not.
Some may remember when we hosted the Super Bowl, which might mean higher tourism yields for this current year — we'll have to wait and see. Yet not all the glitters... in addition to the $8 million in hotel tax business we did, there was the $7.6 SFPD overtime bill, we discovered this morning.
Related: Handshake Deal: How SF Scored The Super Bowl With No Written Agreement