Coronavirus Update: Experts Expect A Slow Return Of International Visitors To San Francisco
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- International tourism will not resume its normal pace until 2023, according to a new report by Tourism Economics, a data and consulting firm. In the Bay Area, the coronavirus shutdown is costing jobs and livelihoods.
"Business is all gone right now, Fisherman's Wharf is a ghost town," said Joseph Amster, a San Francisco tour guide who has been laid off one of his jobs. He still runs his own walking tour portraying Emperor Norton, but he hasn't been working at all.
"The last time I gave a tour was March 7th and half the people canceled that day," Amster said. "So I'm making it, but it's difficult. It's definitely difficult."
Hardly anyone is traveling. Many restaurants are boarded up. This week, we learned San Francisco's largest convention - Dreamforce - will be conducted online.
"It is by far the worst that we've ever seen in the history of modern travel and tourism," said Joe D'Alessandro, CEO of San Francisco Travel, the city's tourism marketing association.
D'Alessandro said travel and tourism is the number one generator of taxes for San Francisco, normally employing 90,000 people. But it has dropped off in less than two months.
"The flights are not coming into SFO right now," D'Alessandro said. "Hotels that were enjoying 90 percent occupancy and having a lot of employees just a month and a half ago are closed or are experiencing less than 10 percent occupancy today. Sixty-four percent of all of our tourism spending in San Francisco was from tourists from around the world. And that has virtually stopped."
John Poimiroo, a travel expert, who is a former director of California's tourism bureau, said 1.2 million Californians are employed by travel and tourism which, statewide, generates $12 Billion dollars in taxes.
"The travel economy is spinning out of control faster than the Harley Quinn coaster over at Six Flags," Poimiroo said. "We've got to throw out the rule book and we've got to start completely new."
That is why tourism bureaus are now starting to come up with recovery plans.
San Francisco's will happen in phases, D'Alessandro said, which will largely depend on people feeling more comfortable with the cleanliness of planes, hotels and restaurants.
"We're going to be focusing on regional travel," D'Alessandro said. "People from California that get in a car and come and spend the weekend in San Francisco. The second phase will be people from the West Coast: Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Arizona who want to come to California."
"The next phase is going to be long haul North America. Whether they're coming from the East Coast - New York is our biggest market - or Canada or Mexico. And then finally, international will be back and international is going to take a bit more time."
D'Alessandro said his biggest fear is that many businesses treasured by patrons in the Bay Area may not be able to sustain the slow ramp up back to normal, especially as social distancing continues to be a part of the picture.
"You know, many restaurants live on a very small margin," D'Alessandro said. "And they count on being full in order to survive. If we limit the number of people that go into restaurants, many of them can't survive that way."
"So let's keep them alive. And let's support those businesses as soon as we can get out, as soon as they can open. Let's make sure that they survive. Let's make sure that our neighbors have jobs and our economy returns."
© Copyright 2020 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report
