Economic Impact of San Diego's Visitor Industry
2001 Celebration of National Tourism Week
By Joanne DiBona, SDCVB Communications Director
Whenever one thinks of travel and tourism, pleasant images of relaxing on the beach, strolling through colorful neighborhoods, or hiking through landscape of awe-inspiring natural beauty may come to mind.
Not too many people associate travel and tourism with business and commerce. Yet, the economic, social and cultural benefits tourism brings to the local community, to the nation, and to the world at large are of a magnitude one might find hard to imagine.
Just how big is this contribution?
Travel and tourism--encompassing transportation, catering, accommodations, recreation and services for travelers--is actually the world's largest industry and generator of jobs.
It is the nation’s third largest retail sales industry and one of America’s largest employers. It is in fact the first, second or third largest employer in 28 U.S. states and the District of Columbia, creating 7.8 million jobs nationally.
The travel and tourism industry that has developed to service the traveler contributes enormously to the U.S. economy. In 1999, direct travel spending in the United States by domestic and international travelers reached nearly $519 billion dollars, 5.6 percent of the nation's gross domestic product.
For San Diego, the economic impact of travel and tourism is just as dramatic. In 2000, 15.2 million overnight visitors poured $5.2 billion into the local economy, making the visitor industry San Diego's third-largest, following manufacturing and the military.
The statistics are certainly impressive on paper, but many of you who have no direct tie to the visitor industry may ask, "Well, fine and good, but how does this actually benefit me? Why should I care whether visitors come to town?"
To answer that question, let's follow some tourist dollars as they wend their way through the various levels of our economy. We'll use the case of John and Jane Doe and their two young children. The Does booked a vacation on-line by using the San Diego Convention & Visitors Bureau (ConVis) website (www.sandiego.org) after reading a glowing article in Conde Nast magazine which named San Diego one of the top 10 cities in the United States.
The first dollars to fly out of John's hands went to purchase the airline tickets for this family and a rental car for the week's vacation in San Diego. A few more dollars went to pay for a six-night stay at a local hotel near the beach. Upon their arrival in San Diego, the Does planned their day's activities with great excitement.
Because they were in a vacation mood, they threw caution to the wind and spent rather freely during their entire stay here. They were, after all, "on vacation" and thought nothing of splurging on whatever they felt would make their vacation experience more memorable.
They spent dollars to visit the Zoo, Sea World, LegoLand and the Wild Animal Park; they dropped more dollars at a variety of local restaurants and even more buying souvenirs of San Diego at specialty stores and at several of the shopping malls around town.
They drove all around the county, from Julian to Chula Vista, pumping gas at local stations for their day trips. They rented a sailboat and jet skis for the kids; took them to a couple of movies at local theatres; visited the Stephen Birch Aquarium; toured the museums of Balboa Park; played miniature golf; took a hike and visited the Mission Trails Nature Museum; saw an IMAX film at the Reuben H. Fleet Space Theater; and rode the roller coaster and played video games at Belmont Park.
They spent plenty of dollars as they made their way around town. What happens to their dollars after this point, though, isn't so obvious. The Doe's dollars became part of the paychecks for all those persons who had direct--as well as indirect--contact with the Doe family and their money: the hotel receptionist who took their reservation; the security guard at the museum; the linen supply truck driver who brings in the hotel laundry; the air traffic controller at Lindbergh Field; the food supplier to the restaurants where the Does went for dinner; the recycling company collecting the day's refuse at the attractions; the construction worker putting a new addition on the Doe's hotel; and the accountant at the rental car company.
These paychecks were cashed and some of the Doe dollars took another turn around the community. They were used by these same employees to buy groceries, to pay the mechanic, to buy a new dress at the shopping mall, to purchase a new TV. People from the local hairdresser to the family doctor, in a roundabout way, all got a slice of the Doe dollars.
The message is obvious. Those visitor dollars continued to trickle down through various levels of our community, enriching the local economy each step of the way by providing wages, salaries, profits and taxes.
So the next time you see tourists meandering through town, you might just look at them in a new light--as generators of spending whose dollars help to enrich San Diego's economy and quality of life for us all.
