Last week the Chamber team had an informative conversation with the Marketing Director of Visit California.  She reached out to share some information about tourism and how destinations, like Santa Cruz, receive an economic benefit because of visitors to our coastal community.  We all know that tourism plays an important economic role for coastal communities along California’s Central Coast. This eNews report provides access to Visit California’s website and specifically to the research and trends reports  — https://industry.visitcalifornia.com/research/economic-impact.

For those who read the weekly eNews, you know I like to dive into data that tells a story of our economic victories and also the challenges we’ve faced during the height of the pandemic. Let’s take a moment and dig into the Economic Impact of Travel in California from 2012–2021.  According to the report, “These economic impacts are based on — statewide visitor trips — which are defined as trips taken by individuals who stay overnight away from home, or travel more than 50 miles one way on a non-routine trip.”

This definition of a “visitor” is derived from the California Tourism Marketing Act. Some destinations in California calculate visitation and economic impact using different definitions of visitors and different data-gathering methods, so the figures may not match.  According to the 2021 report, travel spending in California hit $100.2 billion with a 46.3% Year over Year Change.  State and local tax revenue generated by travel was $9.8 billion, a 33.3% increase year over year.  And Employment related to travel was 927,100 an increase of 56,000 jobs.  The report breaks down Travel spending by industry segment where accommodations and food service are the largest shares of the spending. 

Historically speaking, during the 2012 to 2021 period, travel spending went from $108 billion in 2012 to a peak of nearly $150 billion in 2019. In the pandemic year 2020, travel spending took a nose dive to under $75 billion and saw an uptick in 2021 to $109 billion.

Let’s take a look at the Central Coast for a regional perspective.  Central Coast 2021 Travel-Related spending was $7.6 billion; state and local tax revenue was $778 million and employment was marked at 73,300 jobs.  Similar to the overall California trend, the peak high year was 2019 when travel spending was over $9 billion and dropped significantly in 2020 to $5 billion; it then recovered to just under $7 billion.  You can view the regional report here:  https://industry.visitcalifornia.com/research/economic-impact?sort=region&region=Central%20Coast.

Now, what does the report show about our county?  The 2021 Santa Cruz Travel-Related spending was marked at  $692.8 million;  State and local tax revenue was at $69.8 million, and related Travel Employment was 8,400 jobs. In looking at the historical graphics, it shows that from 2017 to 2019, the Santa Cruz economy gained over $1 billion from travel-related revenue.  We took a significant hit, losing nearly 50%, or $503 million.  Santa Cruz rebounded in 2021 to $692 million.  https://industry.visitcalifornia.com/research/economic-impact?sort=county&region=Santa%20Cruz.

We are at the halfway mark for 2022. Anecdotal reports show that our tourism industry is doing remarkably well this summer. The question for the hospitality sector is can we get back to pre-pandemic levels and how will Visit Santa Cruz County market our region to lure more visitors to the Central Coast?