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About The Bay: San Francisco Tourism Booming

SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS)— Can you look any sillier than riding around in one of those yellow tourist GoCars in San Francisco? Maybe if you're on a Segway tour.

These GPS guided three-wheel motorcycle cars are all over town because tourists are all over town.

I took one out for a spin to get in the tourist spirit and found a lot of people from outside the United States. Okay, not everyone, but it is the international tourist that seems to be driving business these days.

KCBS' Mike Sugerman Reports:

"In San Francisco it's 30 percent up in international travel versus previous years," said Matt Stiker with the San Francisco Travel Association, the city's tourism agency.

He said those numbers are from 2011, but all indications show it's as strong or even stronger.

Tourism in the city is in the midst of one of the best, if not the best, stretches in years.

"We're seeing an uptick this year. This has definitely been a good year," Stiker said.

Nathan Withrington runs GoCars which are seeing a lot of use for the GPS narration in several languages and Europeans are doing just that. Even with a bad economy and a falling Euro.

But one European tourist's logic was that as long as you're working, you're going to be okay.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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