San Francisco counts on Indian visitors for tourism growth recovery
San Francisco is looking to Indian visitors for tourism recovery after the slow reopening of Asian markets affected the travel growth in the Golden Gate city. In 2022, India ranked among San Francisco's top five visitor markets with 150,000 visitors. Visitor volume from India is expected to grow by 34 percent in 2023.
"In 2023, we are expecting the visitor volume out of India to match up with 2019 levels and India will be the first overseas market (excluding Canada and Mexico) to go back to 2019 levels," Hubertus Funke, Executive Vice-President & Chief Tourism Officer, San Francisco Travel Association (SFTA), told Moneycontrol.
In 2019, the Golden Gate city recorded 2.10 lakh visitors from India, which is expected to reach 2.11 lakh by the end of 2023.
However, spending by travellers is yet to see a full recovery. "Indian travellers spent $497 million in 2019 and we are expecting that number to be $436 million by the end of this year. So, in terms of spending we are not quite there yet," he said.
