California’s famous Highway 1 will reopen on Friday, a month after a partial collapse and road slip out near Big Sur forced it to close.
07.05.2024 - 18:49 / travelpulse.com / North America / Gavin Newsom / Laurie Baratti / Visit California
Governor Gavin Newsom and Visit California CEO Caroline Beteta just broke the news that California still retains the largest market share of tourism in the entire United States. According to new data released today, travel spending in the Golden State reached a record high of $150.4 billion in 2023, outstripping the previous record amount of $144.9 billion seen in 2019.
“From our world-renowned coastline, to the world’s tallest trees, to our iconic cities and theme parks, California is the nation’s coming attraction," Newsom said. "Visitors from all over the world are coming here to experience the wonder of the Golden State, boosting our economy and creating good-paying jobs for years to come.”
The new Economic Impact of Travel in California report, prepared by Dean Runyan Associates and released by Visit California, revealed 2023 tourism spending that’s 3.8 percent higher than in pre-pandemic 2019 and 5.6 percent higher than in 2022. On a county-specific level, spending also
“California tourism is back where it belongs—setting records and providing for the workers, business owners and all Californians who depend on the travel industry as a cornerstone of our state’s economy," said Beteta. "The industry has once again proved its ability to recover from any challenge, whether it be economic or environmental. California continues to be the largest, most diverse and most resilient tourism economy in the United States.”
California's dominance in the tourism landscape was further evidenced by the record-breaking $12.7 billion in state and local tax revenue generated by visitors last year, which represents a three-percent increase over 2019. The sector also saw the creation of 64,900 new jobs in 2023, raising the industry’s total employment in the state to 1,155,000.
And, for the seventh year in a row, California maintained its status as the fifth-largest economy in the entire world. With a nominal GDP of almost $3.9 trillion in 2023 and a growth rate of 6.1% from the previous year, the state boasts the second-largest per capita GDP among major economies.
California's relative economic prowess remained unshaken, retaining its status as the world's fifth-largest economy for the seventh consecutive year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). With a nominal GDP in 2023 of almost $3.9 trillion and a growth rate of 6.1 percent over the previous year, the state boasts the second-largest per capita GDP among major economies. By comparison, India comes in sixth place and has the fastest-growing large economy in the world.
In a testament to California's enduring appeal, Newsom noted an uptick in the number of people moving to the state, marking the state's first population increase since the
California’s famous Highway 1 will reopen on Friday, a month after a partial collapse and road slip out near Big Sur forced it to close.
Lonely Planet associate editor Ann Douglas Lott recently traveled to Newport Beach, California, for a sunny coastal getaway. Here, she shares some tips and insights for anyone planning a similar trip.
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Los Angeles, California — The United States has “serious problems” when it comes to international inbound travel that must be resolved if the country is to regain its competitive edge.That’s the assessment of the U.S. Travel Association and its leader Geoff Freeman, the organization’s president and CEO.Freeman delivered his sober take on the problems plaguing inbound travel to the United States during a press conference today in Los Angeles, California where a travel industry convention is taking place.“The United States remains the world’s most desired nation to visit, but at the end of 2019 we had 79 million visitors internationally and in 2023 we had 67 million international visitors," Freeman told the media gathered for the IPW 2024 convention. “That’s only 84 percent of pre-pandemic levels.”“When you look at travel as an export - before the pandemic we had a 12 billion [person] travel trade surplus. At end of last year we had about a 50 billion [person] travel trade deficit,” Freeman added.There's a handful of challenges that the United States currently faces when it comes to attracting international visitors and significantly ramping up inbound numbers, said Freeman. And some of those challenges are within the country’s ability to fix, while others are not.There’s not much that can be done, for instance, about the strength of the U.S. dollar, which makes this country very expensive to visit from many other parts of the world. Similarly, there’s not much U.S. officials can do about the current prohibitions surrounding flights over Russian airspace, which pose a major obstacle for airlines coming to this country from China.However, visa wait times continue to be a significant roadblock for international visitors — and that’s an issue U.S. officials can — and should — be able to fix, Freeman said.“On the visa side, I checked this morning — if you're a Columbian and want to come to the U.S. the wait times are over 600 days to get an interview at a U.S. consulate,” said Freeman. “If you’re in Mexico, the wait times are over 800 days.”By contrast, for visitors from India the wait timeline for visa interviews has recently been reduced to a somewhat more reasonable 150 to 200 days. Similarly, wait times for those visiting from Brazil have been reduced drastically — from what was once 500 days down to just 21 days, according to the U.S. Travel Association.“It shows us that it can be done. When the State Department uses their ingenuity and gets creative and puts resources in the right places, this problem can be solved,” explained Freeman. “But it’s been going on for far too long. It needs to be solved now.”