San Francisco Convention & Visitors Bureau Books a Record 2,229,979 Room Nights for Future Years

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. October 14, 2008

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, September 26, 2005. The San Francisco Convention & Visitors Bureau (SFCVB) has just completed a record-breaking fiscal year (2004/2005) in which they booked 925 convention groups, representing a total of 2,229,979 hotel room nights over the next 16 years.

The citywide economic impact of these bookings is estimated at $1.4 billion. Another 1,837 groups, representing a potential 5,410,979 room nights, were added on a tentative basis through 2028. "San Francisco's convention business continues to hold steady providing attendee dollars to the local economy, supporting hotels, restaurants, retail, services and attractions," said Mark Theis, vice president of the SFCVB Convention Division.

John Marks, president and CEO of the SFCVB, reported the following Bureau achievements for the 2004-2005 fiscal year, which ended June 30, 2005:

• More than 418,900 individual visitors received assistance with their travel plans; 387,400 of them on-site at the Bureau's Visitor Information Center located at Powell and Market Streets on the lower level of Hallidie Plaza.

• More than 1,200 travel trade professionals were hosted on familiarization visits. More than 575 leads for services for tour groups were distributed to SFCVB members.

• Web site traffic was up 48 percent and consumer winter advertising program generated more than 65 million impressions.

• More than 1,500 journalists were assisted with their coverage of San Francisco and its visitor industry. The number of visitors to San Francisco in 2004 was 15.12 million, up 5.9 percent from 2003. Visitors spent $6.73 billion dollars, an increase of 6.8 percent over the previous year. Tourism is San Francisco's largest revenue-generating industry.

Approximately 4 million people stayed in San Francisco hotels in 2004. Hotel guests accounted for 72 percent of dollars spent locally by out-of-town visitors, although only 38 percent of San Francisco visitors actually stay in hotels. Visitors also stay with friends and relatives, stay outside the City limits or come into the City only for the day. "The major benchmarks of a healthy hospitality industry - hotel occupancy and average daily room rate - continue to give us reasons to be optimistic, " Marks noted. "With overall city occupancy in the low 80s this June and July, and Fisherman's Wharf properties breaking into the 90s this July, we like what we're seeing." Occupancy in San Francisco hotels was up 2.2 percent for an average of 74.4 percent for January-July and the average daily room rate (ADR) at $151.69 was up 3.5 percent according to PKF Consulting, a worldwide hotel analysis firm.