The San Francisco Travel Association reported today that San Francisco welcomed 18.01 million visitors in 2014, an increase of 6.5 percent from 2013. These visitors spent $10.67 billion in 2014, up 13.7 percent from the previous year. The number of UK visitors also increase 4.8%, from 334,300 arrivals in 2013, to 350,300 in 2014; the UK was No.1 among Top 15 overseas arrivals.
“The growth of San Francisco’s visitor industry continued to break records in 2014,” said Joe D’Alessandro, San Francisco Travel President and Chief Executive. “Both visitor spending and the total number of visitors have reached the highest levels ever.”
The tourism industry generated $665 million in taxes for the City of San Francisco, up 8% from the previous year. The number of jobs supported by tourism rose 13.2% to 87,005 jobs in 2014, with an annual payroll of $2.67 billion, an increase of 15.9%. In 2014, there was an average of 150,412 visitors in San Francisco each day. Visitor spending equated to $29.23 million daily (including spending related to meetings and conventions).
San Francisco Travel also reported that 130,000 people stayed in peer-to-peer lodgings such as Airbnb. Cruise ships saw 260,000 passengers embark and disembark in San Francisco. These market segments had not been tracked previously.
