From April 11-19, 2024, the San Francisco Tourism Board hosted the 2024 China Roadshow. This roadshow is also the first large-scale roadshow after the San Francisco Tourism Bureau fully restarted marketing and publicity in Chinese mainland this year, covering five stops in Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Beijing, fully demonstrating the importance of the Chinese market to San Francisco's inbound tourism.
Scott Beck, President and CEO of the San Francisco Tourism Board, led a delegation from the San Francisco Tourism Board and San Francisco International Airport to visit a number of Chinese airlines, cultural and tourism bureaus, and communicate and negotiate with Chinese outbound agencies, online travel agents, curators, and media.
For the first time since 2019, China regained its position as the top overseas market for tourists in San Francisco and San Mateo counties, contributing $633.4 million, according to the latest data from Oxford Economics for 2023. The number of Chinese tourists ranked sixth, about 208,300, an increase of 176.3% over the previous year.
The San Francisco Tourism Board said it is very excited to return to the Chinese market and share the latest developments in San Francisco with its tourism partners. Over the past few years, San Francisco has opened a number of great new hotels, restaurants, and fascinating new attractions and things to do, and we look forward to welcoming more Chinese tourists. The Chinese market is very important to San Francisco, and we expect Chinese tourists to continue to spend the most in 2024 and surpass pre-pandemic levels by 2026.
During the roadshow, delegations from the San Francisco Tourism Board and San Francisco International Airport met with airlines to facilitate the resumption of more direct flights to San Francisco, and also had in-depth discussions with Chinese travel industry colleagues to understand the latest market needs to better serve Chinese tourists.
"This is our first return to China since 2019, just as the aviation market is recovering," said Kevin Bumen, chief financial and commercial officer at San Francisco International Airport. ”
Last week, San Francisco Mayor London N. Breed led a delegation of San Francisco AAPI business and community leaders to China, meeting with local government officials, businesses and airlines in Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Beijing and Shanghai. In an interview with the media in Beijing, Mayor Breed warmly welcomed Chinese tourists to beautiful San Francisco. She noted that San Francisco has deep historical ties with China, and that many San Francisco residents originally came from China. In addition, San Francisco and Shanghai are the first pair of sister cities between the United States and China, and on April 20, they celebrated the 45th anniversary of their sister city relationship.
This year, Tourism San Francisco will further develop tourism training and product design for new routes in the Chinese market, as well as strengthen social media promotion to let more potential visitors know more about San Francisco as a wonderful and diverse top tourist destination.