In December 2013, the Office of Travel and Tourism Industries (OTTI) released the international visitation numbers for San Francisco which continues to be one of the most popular destinations in the United States for overseas visitors.
Europe, with nearly 1.4 million visitors in 2012, continues to be the largest overseas market for San Francisco. The United Kingdom remains the number one market, with nearly 330,000 visitors in 2012, a 10 percent increase from 2011. After the UK, San Francisco’s top 10 European cities include Germany (240,000 visitors); France (229,000 visitors); Italy (91,000 visitors); Netherlands (78,000 visitors); Spain (69,000 visitors); Switzerland (63,000 visitors); Sweden (53,000 visitors); Denmark (40,000 visitors); and Ireland (31,000 visitors).
In Oct. 2012, The San Francisco Travel Association, in partnership with San Francisco International Airport (SFO), retained marketing and public relations representation in Denmark to support Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) new nonstop service to SFO which launched in April 2013. “SAS’s new non-stop service, coupled with San Francisco Travel’s aggressive sales and marketing efforts in the Nordic region, has resulted in a significant increase in the number of Scandinavian visitors to San Francisco,” stated Tom Kiely, executive vice president of tourism for San Francisco Travel. “This April, Aer Lingus will begin non-stop service from Dublin to San Francisco, which we are also extremely excited about. San Francisco shares strong ties with Ireland and this new service, which will offer five flights per week into San Francisco, is expected to bring an additional 1500 visitors per week,” added Kiely. Silicon Valley firms such as Google, Apple and Facebook each have offices in Dublin.
Asia is the second largest overseas market for San Francisco, representing more than 800,000 visitors in 2012. More than 317, 000,or a third of these visitors, came from China; followed by South Korea with 169,000 visitors; Japan with 144,000 visitors; and India with 79,000 visitors.
Oceania continues to be the third largest overseas market for San Francisco with 291,000 total visitors; 221,000 from Australia and 70,000 from New Zealand.
South America is the fourth largest overseas market for San Francisco, with a total of168, 000 visitors in 2012, with the majority visiting from Brazil with 75,000 visitors; followed by Argentina with 27,000 visitors; and Venezuela close behind with 26,000 visitors.
“Through our on-going relationship with SFO, the marketing and media relations efforts of our 14 international representation offices; and the hard work of our in-house San Francisco Travel Tourism team, we anticipate continued strong growth in the overseas market in 2014 and beyond,” said Joe D’Alessandro, San Francisco Travel president and CEO. “While the international visitor numbers have not yet been released for 2013, hosting the America’s Cup in San Francisco attracted countless international visitors to our city who enjoyed breathtaking views of our waterfront and near-perfect September weather.”
The overseas market represents nearly 20 percent of San Francisco’s total visitor volume, with a total of16.51 million visitors in 2012. The tourism industry generated $562 million in taxes for the City of San Francisco, up 6.7 percent from the previous year. The number of jobs supported by tourism rose 3.6 percent to 74,009 jobs in 2012, with an annual payroll of $2.18 billion, an increase of 6.2 percent. In 2012, there was an average of 131,128 visitors in San Francisco each day. Visitor spending equated to $24.46 million daily (including spending related to meetings and conventions).
The San Francisco Travel Association has 14 international representation offices to support the marketing and media relations efforts to promote the city of San Francisco as one of the most compelling destinations in the world. In Europe, office locations include France; Germany; Italy/Spain; Scandinavia; and the UK. In Asia, office locations include Japan; China (Beijing and Shanghai); Korea; and India. In South America, San Francisco Travel retains representation services in Argentina and Brazil. San Francisco Travel also has an office in Canada and in Australia, which also represents New Zealand.
The San Francisco Travel Association is the official tourism marketing organization for the City and County of San Francisco. For information on reservations, activities and more, visit www.sanfrancisco.travel or call 415-391-2000. The Visitor Information Center is located at 900 Market St. in Hallidie Plaza, lower level, near the Powell Street cable car turnaround.
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