Gov. Jerry Brown set a new history for hospitality in California in 2024. Despite what Gavin Newsom announced on Monday, the high isn’t anticipated to past because of President Trump’s tariffs.
According to a 2024 socioeconomic impact statement from Visit California, the country’s volunteer marketing company, tourism spending next year reached$ 157. billion, off 3 % from 2023, and created 24, 000 work.
California is still the No. According to a statement from the governor’s office, the state has the fourth-largest economy in the world and is known as a” tribe for tourism,” but next year it anticipates a 1 % decline in visitor numbers and a 9.2 % decline in international tourism, “in direct response to federal economic policy and an impending” Trump Slump.”
Local LA tour parties and knickknack stores, which are typically booming at this time of year from spring break vacation, have claimed that the business war’s impact on the stock market and the uncertainty of tariffs have turned people away from local vacation.
However, there are other issues beyond the local: Canadians have cancelled or planned to travel to California for events like Coachella as a result of Trump’s aggressive 25 % tariff, which worries officials in desert towns that depend on snowbirds for income. After February’s figures revealed a , 12 % decline , compared to the same month in 2024, Newsom made a marketing plan to entice Canadians back to California.
The Los Angeles Tourism and Convention Board estimates that the tourism and hospitality industry supports more than 1, 000 local businesses and employs about 510, 000 people in the Los Angeles area alone.
Travel to the U.S. could drop by 5 % this year, according to Tourism Economics, a Philadelphia-based travel data company, with a 15 % decline in travel from Canada.
Tourism employs 1 in 8 residents of San Diego, where Comic Con takes place, some of the most picturesque beaches in California, and Balboa Park’s” Smithsonian of the West,” which generated$ 14.88 billion in revenue in 2024. It was one of the nation’s top travel destinations last year, with 32.5 million visitors.
According to Kerri Kapich, chief operating officer at the San Diego Tourism Authority, “uncertainty is the new norm.”
She claimed that it’s difficult to plan ahead because of constant change. Travel will have an impact on the local economy as it slows or stays the same as it did last year. Fewer hotel stays, fewer restaurant checks, and less money spent overall in the community could mean fewer jobs, too.
The state budget‘s uncertainty will be weighed by the state budget‘s uncertain revenues and rising disaster recovery costs, which are obscuring Sacramento’s upcoming revision scheduled for the following week. In response, Newsom suing the Trump administration, alleging that the president has no authority to impose international tariffs without the consent of Congress.
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