The Future of California Tourism in Challenging Times
a sustaining member of the commonwealth to join today hello uh and welcome to the commonwealth club my name is adam hirschfelder i'm with the programming department here it's really a pleasure uh to have some folks here a live audience and of course an audience online on youtube and facebook welcome we're thrilled to have you here this is one of our first in-person programs since we reopened our building earlier in the summer we are continuing to do some select live programs but we're also going to be doing of course a huge range of programs online that you can find on our website at commonwealthclub.org we thank the members who are here today and we encourage you to come and continue to support us during this challenging time of course like the club an industry that has also faced big challenges is the tourism industry and that's why we're here today we have a great panel here to discuss the challenges of tourism in california which is a critically important industry and we couldn't be more thankful to have the group we have here today we'll learn a little bit about california tourism tourism here in the city of san francisco from a top-down perspective as well as a bottom-up perspective because it's often times we overlook the critical role of the employees that are part of tourism so a special thank you to the california wellness foundation which has enabled us to provide this program free both to people on site as well as online so with that i want to bring up our group no you can you are good bring up the group thank you go ahead just right good morning and welcome everybody uh to this morning's program the future of california tourism in challenging times at the commonwealth club my name is spud hilton and i spent 19 years in the travel section of the san francisco chronicle including 10 as the editor there and i'm currently the editor of wear traveler magazine for san francisco bay area which is distributed in hotels all of which is to say travel tourism and all of it are very close to my heart and i am absolutely thrilled to be moderating this panel today with this esteemed panel so a special thank you to the california wellness foundation for providing support for this program we are joined today by three terrific guests who can give a terrific overview of the state of tourism california where we are now and where we're headed over the coming months and years uh over the past 18 months and i think it's worth noting that this is the 504 day since the state shutdown last year has been like unlike anything the tourism industry has ever faced and that has a tremendous impact on the state and its economy the companies that rely on travel and tourism and perhaps most importantly the people employed in that industry here to speak about the important issues are carolyn bateta the president ceo of visit california a major nonprofit organization that works with the state's travel industry to inspire travel to and within california joe d'allesandro the president ceo of sf travel which markets the san francisco area as a leisure convention and business travel destination and daniella puccinelli director of event management at western saint francis san francisco on union square and a veteran in the tourism industry before we jump in a quick note about today's format it's worth noting that today is one of the first commonwealth club program on site uh which means essentially that we not only have people here in san francisco hello san francisco but we also have viewers all around the country watching via youtube all of you no matter how you are watching can submit questions for any one of our panelists if you are watching online please post the questions in the chat feature the chat feature of youtube or zoom those will be brought to me throughout the program for on-site questions please fill out the question cards that are on your seats okay so let's begin and i want to start with you caroline it's carolyn yes thank you i did some reading lately uh actually i just googled it and found out that apparently tourism in california is kind of a big deal um to say the least yeah could you paint a picture for us of the importance of tourism to the entire state the current state of tourism uh and maybe the challenges that the state is facing now that we're already 18 months into the pandemic yeah that's great questions but and and it's just interesting as we continue to go forth through this pandemic i feel like there's a before coveted reality during and after and and we all preface everything we speak to in in the tourism industries before covet i i think i'll start with like really what happened tourism and hospitality was more affected than any other sector um in both nationally and in california as a matter of fact uh for us and i know working with joe d'alessandro for years and years we we both experienced 9 11 which was epic well this was 10 times the size of 9 11. i find it ironic that we're sitting here on today the 20th anniversary speaking about this but that's the earthquake if you will of what happened to tourism and hospitality overnight california within 30 days lost 55 percent of its spending and employment pre-covered it was a 145 billion dollar a year industry that directly employed well over a million californians so it was in an incredibly large loss felt throughout the state not only are our gateway cities highly reliant on tourism revenue to power city services which joe will talk about but so are our rural areas and counties every single county it's the number one or two employment sector for all of our rural counties as well so to say the least it was certainly epic uh where where we started where we are we're projecting a five-year recovery a lot has come back uh we're fortunate in california actually that we have about 79 spending here in california from californians uh but international and meetings and events uh are critical to the overall health of the industry particularly in our gateway cities like san francisco and so that's where the real leg is and and the challenges is uh bringing back that visitor spending and those segments uh to become whole again post covid and i'll just close with just to put all of these numbers in perspective we are the number one tourism destination united states we're actually uh two and a half times the size of the florida tourism economy and five times the size of the hawaiian tourism economy could you outline what the state is doing right now to try to encourage more tourism during these times yeah i think that's the good news is that our elected leaders our governor lieutenant governor certainly recognized the economic impacts to our local areas and and the state as a whole as well as employment and getting people back to work we work closely with the industry frankly in an ask of a 45 million dollar stimulus because our budget is funded similar to joe's in that we have the tourism industry invests like a local tourism and improvement district so when tourism revenues fall our revenues fell and we couldn't get our way out of talking about the importance of the open for business message when we did finally open up to visitors meanwhile our competitive set like florida was running away in terms of top of mind awareness perception of destination awareness our ask was 45 million as a one-time appropriation to jump start this open for business message and our elected leaders came through with a 95 million dollar stimulus so it really speaks to the importance of the industry and the important economic fabric that is tourism in california uh and and so we we actually right now for the first time ever are running a 52-week campaign both in state and nationally uh speaking to uh you know prospective travelers from around the nation of uh come and experience california right now and then an additional about a 10 million dollar label layer in california a campaign that's entitled calling all californians talking about the importance of choosing a california bucket list to help stimulate the economy our neighbors are friends what a great modern day act of patriotism to choose california to really jump start that so at the appropriate time i can even show you some of the creative we're running right now and i bet you our viewers uh here and in in zooming in with us perhaps have seen this campaign and i think now is the appropriate time great can we run those spots this couple is working hard on our state's recovery you see that they live in california and keeping their vacation in california supports our small businesses and communities which means that beautiful baby gherkin atop this charcuterie masterpiece is like another brick in the rebuilding of our economy job well done friends calling all californians keep your vacation here and help our state get back to work and please travel responsibly you have one more spot if you want to no absolutely perhaps this guy here is busy working on our state's recovery you see he lives in california and by vacationing in california he's supporting our businesses and communities which means every fruity skewer is like another sweet nail in the rebuilding of our economy hammer away craftsman calling all californians keep your vacation here and help our state get back to work and please travel responsibly i like it i love you i actually saw one of those this morning okay yeah no definitely joe it's your turn give us some insight uh the importance of tourism to san francisco because i googled that too and apparently it is also a big deal here the importance of tourism in san francisco how the city's been affected over the last 18 months and some of the ways we're addressing the issue i guess sure spud um and happy to talk about it it's great to be here to be able to share some of this information um you know leading into the pandemic uh tourism with san francisco's leading industry um generated about 11 billion dollars in spending almost 90 000 employees in the city of san francisco and visitors generated about a billion dollars in state local local taxes that san franciscans didn't have to pay and those taxes went uh to pay for everything from schools and parks police fire roads you name it and um and for the 10 years leading up to the pandemic we had 10 years in a row of record-breaking growth our hotel occupancy and hotel revenues were tied with new york as the number one in the nation and then the pandemic hit and today we're tied with new york as the worst performing major hotel market in the nation and um and it's largely because of our mix san francisco has always been a very expensive city 63 percent of all of our visitor spending uh leading into the pandemic was by international visitors whether they were here for leisure purposes or meetings and conventions 63 percent most of our borders in the united states are closed now and these same international visitors cannot get here so san francisco is also very dependent on the meetings and convention market we all know that moscone is a key revenue generator for the city yesterday we opened the california dental association the first meeting in moscone in 19 months the moscone has been used as a mass vaccination site as a in the the center for all emergency services during the pandemic but now it's back to its intended use but for the first time uh in many many months we're having uh our convention here and again that it was ironic that the california dental association the first one back after the pandemic was also the first group that met in san francisco after 9 11 after we had closed the convention center down to 911 so it's very appropriate that it was the california dental association so there's no question that there's a lot of people that are remain unemployed in the hospitality industry in san francisco a lot of businesses have closed um some temporarily some permanently you see that effects especially when you go into parts of the the city like downtown where a lot of people are not back in their offices yet that's still a shadow of what it was before still restaurants still need to be open however the neighborhoods have seemed to be faring fine during this period the neighborhood restaurants are very busy luckily the city's taken some healthy approaches and did the parklets and the outdoor dining functions a lot of people instead of working downtown or working in the neighborhoods so um and those restaurants were able to expand capacity during during the pandemic and and be able to open and function well so um it is it is a mixed story it's uh you know depending on where you are and the kind of businesses you served how you've been able to survive but but still we don't anticipate that san francisco returned to levels of tourism of 2019 until probably 2025 simply because the of our market mix we are a very expensive destination we don't have the domestic leisure travel audience that a lot of other uh less expensive destinations in the united states have um so we attract a more uh an audience that is more willing to pay our prices in san francisco so what we're trying to do in working closely with the private sector the hotel community the restaurant community and also the city to do everything we can to rejuvenate san francisco and make it more friendly make it more approachable to many visitors to come here so we've been partnering a lot with visit california a lot of our marketing is together with visit california we have the same strategies we align on almost all of our efforts like this we have been doing a lot of regional uh marketing you'll see san francisco is busier on the weekends um than it is during the week um because the leisure travelers tend to come on the weekends um during the week we had business travels and meetings and conventions and they're not back yet so that's why the weekend travel is is a little bit slower to return um you know we're going to get there we're confident we're going to get there we're seeing life come back events are happening again um you know we'll have a busy october in terms of public events with fleet week and the other activities that are that are happening um but it's still been devastating and there is no other word for it but but devastating you know we in marketing we tend to always paint a beautiful picture of how wonderful everything is but we have to be real um this has hit our industry as carolyn said more than any other industry globally not just in california but globally and and it's going to take a long time to recover and we'll talk more about employees but a lot of it's going to be difficult to find employees back in the industry as we start to recovery too so there's a lot of challenges that we face but san francisco is still san francisco and people from around the world still want to come here uh time out just picked san francisco as the top global uh city yesterday and new york had that number one for for a long time and l.a came in 10th so two california city are 11. two california cities are in the top 11 of the top global cities which is great it shows that
people still want to come here are very desirable it's just going to be a while for us to get back to the level of travel and tourism that we were before the pandemic well i'm glad you mentioned the employees and getting employees back i think it's really easy to get lost in the numbers and lose sight that employees are the ones who power the tourism industry and daniella if you could help us understand what's been the impact of the past 18 months on those who are employed in tourism and what are the challenges you and other employees have faced and continue to face um well as joe had mentioned it is devastating we've never seen anything like this in our industry we've seen colleagues friends you know laid off furloughed you know uh hospitality is all about service providing an experience and we were doing the opposite we were telling people you can't come to work i don't have work for you so it was a different mindset it was very mentally challenging in that sense because we're there to provide an experience and we couldn't do it um i think um you know i've fortunately i've been able to work throughout the pandemic but i'm one of the fortunate ones but i've seen a lot of people that colleagues that have left the industry uh because it was taking too long to come back and they've and there are a lot of talented people in our industry so being in the san francisco area tech and these higher paying industries are taking the um the people that can transition into a different field so we're seeing that now that we slowly are coming back in business um it's hard to find people uh i you know we had to we've i would say most properties in san francisco i would think generally have brought back everybody that's still part of their team and now we're trying to all find new members and we're all um you know vying for the same people it's really competitive out there anxiously awaiting all those you know hospitality majors those students coming out of school i think that'll be a nice influx you know and then once the spring hits but um it's you know it's it's it's been difficult um and we when watching people come back to work is interesting too because it's a very we have to preface it's not the same environment that you left we are working differently people are anxious about coming back to work because they've been home and not doing anything so there's this readjustment into coming back into work life public life being around a lot of people so it's just we all have to support one another to make sure we get through this together and if they're anything like me they had to go out and buy more clothes that were slightly larger people are yeah trepidatious when they come back and wondering if their work clothes still fit yeah yeah let's uh let's look at a little bit more range of tourism issues including some of the positive sides what's been the and this is for interview what's been the impact of intra-state tourism and how is it being encouraged i'm happy to take that uh you know it is interesting there there was an opportunity uh that hit with you know all of us being respectfully grounded within our countries so to speak our one of our leading tourism researchers at oxford economics had spoke about this opportunity of 6 million americans staying home during the pandemic as opposed to going to europe australia asia and so that that did become an opportunity a lot of those folks actually reside in california and they are definitely rediscovering california and and we hope that that will provide long-term traction that you don't have to go to you know tuscany or other wine destinations throughout the world when we have world-class wine destinations for example coastal destinations etc and so we you know it's interesting how joe mentioned where their challenges lie right now and during this pandemic it played out a little bit in terms of many of our destinations suffered from over tourism because californians were moving beyond the gateway cities and the capacity issues were a real challenge but nonetheless i i do believe in the long term there's a silver lining about californians getting out and discovering really anything you want to experience in the world you can experience right here so uh that that's been definitely one of the upsides as we've run this advertising for example already on august 29th we peaked florida as a as one percentage point over but i'll take it in terms of destination readiness and preference and we had started far far back in the pack with them to the point where visitor behavior trends and infrastructure for example airline lift had compressed here in california into california and was expanding into florida so this latest in terms of desirability and the aspiration of california i think will continue as we migrate through this year and i'll add on to that that before the pandemic new york was san francisco's number one market uh today los angeles is our number one market and sacramento is our number two market so it tells you how the dynamics have changed dramatically and in-state travel becomes really important to us right now anything to add daniella or i know it's sort of the big picture yeah i mean i would say during the when we were a little more shut down we did see a lot of locals we talked talked to them as we're bringing them into the hotel where you from oh san jose santa rosa we needed to get out of the house and there wasn't much to do in san francisco but they were on a high floor of a building and they just needed to see something different nice nice i know i've been doing some of that too discovering my own backyard uh joan carol when do you expect to see you know it's all gradual well when do you expect to see sort of significant signs of recovery well june 14th we expected to see significant scientists today um you know it's really hard to project and um and you know when these companies in the travel industry are doing budgeting right now it's just a guess what's going to happen next year we didn't anticipate the delta variant to be as impactful globally as it was um you know we're looking at this fall is going to be soft currently in san francisco our convention and meeting calendar for 2022 is pretty robust um but it was pretty robust this fall too and that changed um so again we're not going to see total recovery we don't think until 2025 we hope to be surprised and it to be better than that but a lot of domestic experts are predicting it won't be until the second half of next year that we start to see a more robust recovery and just tracking with that what what we've seen all along is what we're calling that dimmer switch or a jagged recovery uh two steps forward one step back as a matter of fact so as you said the the you know the future looks bright in terms of you know regional travel but it's the the longer hall travel that really brings in those dollars to these communities that are really important we're not discounting regional travel but really to become whole and and that's where we get this situation of a jagged recovery joe and i were just talking this week earlier about the fact that that our our forecasters were revising those numbers downward because of delta as you said delta really you know has created a delta in the short term for us and uh it just was unexpected i think you know we all just wanted to get out and get this behind us this has been epic for all of us in our lives and i think june 14th we thought we'd never be really looking back but it's we're as we all say we're going to have to learn to live with this and and that creates uh an interesting situation as well and i want to add that our industry understands the importance of following covet protocol we encourage people to be vaccinated we encourage you to wear masks that's the only way we're going to get through this is if people practice these protocols san francisco has the stricte strictest code protocols in the country most of our meeting customers think it's fine um they'd rather have a safe meeting than a meeting that's not safe so it's really important that people get vaccinated if we want to get this economy going again because we're just going to have starts and stops and stalls until people get vaccinated we can get this under control just one more point on that travels leading the way right now nationally 81 of travelers are actually vaccinated fully vaccinated versus 50 so you know i i really feel like i'm part of a bigger movement frankly than just being in the travel business per se you know reflecting on all of society that's great um daniella is there an upside uh will the hospitality in hospitality industry and the people work in it come out stronger maybe changed for the better in some way when we get to the other side of this yeah i would think i think so i think we definitely have had to pull together and work more as a team and support one another through this um and versus being in our silos of you know housekeeping is over here restaurants are over here banquets is here you know we all are in it together so to speak and i think the way we do business daily is a little different where in our industry pre-pandemic cleaning was always behind the scenes you shut the door like i know in a banquet room i never wanted i'd shut the door and we'd clean well now we clean in front we want people to see us cleaning so it it gives um reassurance that it makes people feel comfortable so that's a whole new mindset for us that we're cleaning you know if someone stands up we go and we clean um or we keep the doors open and so i think that's a good thing definitely um and i in any time that there's a downturn in the economy the social market is what will come back first and that's what we're seeing seeing these people that have had to postpone their weddings three times you know they're still having they're coming in on the weekends and doing weddings the anniversaries the so people want to celebrate special events so we're seeing that slowly come back and i thought too with the mask mandate the vaccination mandate we would lose that business but people are no let's move forward we'll deal with it we're all vaccinated um and we need to celebrate people want to you know get through this uh it's gonna take a lot longer than we would like as joe mentioned it's it's disheartening to hear like i'm thinking four years um but i think um yeah i know i think we'll definitely be be better operators out of all this and co-workers to each other okay other than the pandemic itself are there other issues that are working against a speedy recovery and what's helping labor yeah yeah i mean across the country even hospitality's been one of the hardest hit areas we're hearing about labor shortages in all sectors but hospitality has been hit extraordinarily hard joe actually just became our chief financial officer he's part of our officers of our 37 member board and we had met earlier in the week with our other officers one who's running universal studios and a couple of other attractions dan gordon gordon biersch and that's in their frontal lobes it's all about labor so i i will say that it is interesting to see the patience and tolerance of prospective visitors in understanding this from a global perspective i only think you get a honeymoon for so long but for the most part i think uh patrons just appreciate businesses being open and trying their hardest in terms of service levels and and that's really heartening another thing uh supplies really yes yeah basic supplies have been tough and we have to pre-plan so much further to make sure we can get you know beef and chicken and um just the basic kleenex and just the basics like um you know you hear about the car industry and the chips and it's yeah i mean it's it's tough to get supplies after labor it's supplies that that's news to me i did not know that i mean i knew i couldn't get fresca in the stores but i i didn't know about that hotels would have that problem uh sort of a last question from me uh almost last question what's important for california citizens to understand about tourism and maybe what can people watching this both live and on youtube do to assist you in in your jobs let me start with that one um because i feel really passionate about this i think that you know we all love to travel and we've heard about danielle i mentioned that people just want me to get out of their house after be stuck in there and they know how important and liberating travel is and how it opens minds and opens the world and uh to people but and we all want to go to these exotic places but you know for the time being let's focus on california right now let's um let's spend our money and keep our own businesses operating keep our small businesses most of san francisco's tourism economy are mom and pop small businesses small restaurants it's not the huge you know we don't have casinos and big theme parks in san francisco it's they go to the neighborhoods they go the same businesses that we support we need to make sure these businesses can make it through these times so instead of necessarily going somewhere else spend your money in california support your local businesses that's absolutely critical during this time because if they can get it through it then they can be survive and be healthy and not only our industry but the economy and the very spirit of our communities can survive but we have to make sure we can do everything possible to make our california businesses survive during this period and if we can i think it's going to be a much brighter future for all of us yes and just doubling down on that supporting our businesses and our destinations in our urban cores that's where the business you know where we need that business the most uh in addition to that is as you saw perhaps on some of the advertising we're running uh it's really important for us to emphasize traveling responsibly not only from a safety protocol perspective for you and the guests and our employment base to keep those you know employees safe but also from an environmental standpoint when uh you know you're out wandering around and an economic economic standpoint as we said during covid we well right before kovid we had drafted a california sustainability plan around travel we thought that would just be on the shelf when we went into covid but we quickly pulled it off the shelf because many of our destinations outside the gateways as i said were getting visitors for the first time so you know we had people going up uh i-80 and i-50 corridors to lake tahoe uh without you know chains in the winter and appropriate tires or just pulling over the side of the road and throwing out sleds it was a danger for people that were sledding next to a freeway for example so there's there's responsible ethics around keeping yourself your family safe the tourism community but also just be thinking about even the simple as an instagram shot many you know many people flock to iconic destinations uh throughout california many here in san francisco but but when you're trying to get that shot think about the business that's operating right behind you and make sure you walk in there and grab a cup of coffee or a diet coke because they're all using their bathrooms facilities and they need that business too just to stay alive so it's really about responsible travel on so many dimensions that that you may be out of your neighborhood but you're in somebody else's neighborhood and and we really are a global community at this point i i've been a strong advocate to get rid of the word staycation as a travel editor i hated the idea it was it's it's a terrible word however in this particular case is are we relying to some extent on the staycation for hotels and hospitals obviously yeah especially with the international market not being um around and to support us and we definitely see during the week in san francisco the decline in occupancy and then the weekend um every and the um the drive-in market i just found out this last uh labor day weekend at our hotel we had the highest revenue in parking ever and that's because of the drive-in market wow i have a personal anecdote on this several years ago my husband and i were building a house in the sierra foothills um but we just wanted to get away and as crazy as it sounds we drew drove like 20 minutes up the road to stay the night all weekend in a b and b in grass valley and so we go up there at night and have a great dinner and spend the night and then the morning we come back and work on this house like hard labor and it was one of the most delightful weekends ever i mean don't discount the fact that you know these nearby destinations or if you're living somewhere that's even not in downtown san francisco but you know 20 minutes away you can do it without doing it and it's it just is that change of scenery it's fantastic yeah no definitely uh joe you mentioned the local business especially the small mama pops one of my fears at the beginning of this thing was that the kind of places businesses that make the personality of a place are the ones that were going to be least likely to be able to survive is that still a concern you know it it was a concern in the very beginning in fact there was some estimates that we could lose as many as 50 of our restaurants in san francisco um luckily uh things happened the city took charge the mayor did some things like the parklets and the outdoor dining which saved hundreds if not thousands of restaurants from closing so um if we didn't do action if we didn't make some steps that would change that we would be in a much worse shape than we are now now when people come to san francisco you go to north beach on a you know evening and there these restaurants are open this grant is full of people sitting outside it's busier and more lively than it was before the pandemics so some of these changes are permanent they're going to be very helpful for our neighborhoods especially and um and so yes we can do things to make things better and i think san francisco has done that i think you know being the first in the nation to go into lockdown was scary for us because we didn't know what that meant but we also have one of the lowest death rates in the world right now at the covid and one of the lowest infection rates in the world and 80 over 80 of all eligible people are vaccinated in san francisco it's pretty amazing um so you know where's telling the world that san francisco is a safe place to come to it's a safe place to come you have to we ask people to sign our pledge that says you'll follow our protocols when you come to san francisco and travel here and um but it is that we're marketing as a safe place to come to because we were strict and we we followed these codes and and based on science and knew it knowing that that was the best way to keep our city and our industry alive that's great that's great i have a number of questions some from online and some from here um let's see upon or perhaps in preparation for opening borders what do you see as the most critical steps in restoring international visitation to california and san francisco yeah i think you know our country is working bilaterally with some of our major markets those being canada mexico the uk germany japan china australia to name a few we had 14 international offices is up and running before covid those are right now on suspense but it depends on the country canada had a threshold of their own vaccination rate and so they finally opened on august 9th reaching that vaccination rate uh mexico actually their airline lift is running at about the same schedule as it was pre-coveted at this point but for example beijing china our largest international market including san francisco's largest international market you know they're they want to make sure they deliver an olympic experience so we really don't see that market coming back until post olympics australia new zealand big markets for us they're looking at this internally as you know so we're not looking to them until late 2022 in terms of openings as well japan we're hoping that's a mid-market the japanese association of travel travel agents are asking people not to travel and they're encouraging their clientele not to travel for example through the fall and then reassessing on january 1st so depending on the market and the protocols um we particularly in japan we work cooperatively with that association because they view safety as paramount in their culture we um before the pandemic our top mark number one market was was china overseas market and then it would jump back and forth between europe and asia what we're anticipating now is that europe is going to recover faster than asia and um united is our largest single carrier and sfo is their asian gateway and that's going to hurt us with a slower asian recovery we're we anticipate that most of our european service at sfo will be coming back we were the fastest growing large airport in the united states leading up to it most of it was international most of it was a lot of international carriers that many of which have suspended service right now but we're starting to hear their plans to return and start service again and again i think europe is going to come back first and asia is going to lack them and australia will lag behind a bit in order to come back to its full force okay um danielle i think this is probably for you what's the most effective way a hotel can reduce guests fears prior to their booking a stay oh good question well most hotel companies have new cleaning protocols and they are listed on all their our website their corporate you know company websites i know that um we at our hotel we do send out a letter a pre-arrival letter so that we alert the guests what the protocols are to be in the hotel because we you know the mask mandate if they're eating and dining you need to be vaccinated so and then we go over the um steps that we've taken um in in terms of cleaning and um keeping the space safe and stuff so i think that's important uh when it comes to meeting and events we we also have the protocols that we're doing and we get a lot of questions about that we send all the different steps that we're taking whether it's public space private in the meeting space and in the sleeping rooms where you know we're giving um we're we added handstand sanitizer packets into the guest rooms i've been in hotels where you know the remote control is covered there are new apps now where you can make your phone your remote control so there's a lot of technology that's coming into the industry too to make people feel more comfortable and safe to travel i know the cruise industry is doing a lot along those lines with an app that will unlock and lock your door turn on your lights all the touch points right keyless scent keyless entry is very big now amongst all the brands where you don't have to come and get a key for the front desk um and you don't even have to go to front desk so just a lot of seamless you know making it seem more seamless for the traveler all right um i think i'm understanding this question is there something that california can learn from all the people visiting hawaii are there lessons there for california i'm reading that exactly as it is i'm interpreting that i believe as hawaii had to sort of re-shut down a lot of its stuff and then the governor actually encouraged people to stay home don't come here uh i believe that's what the question is aimed at what lessons can we learn from that yeah absolutely and i think from a global perspective we're watching other destinations too i'm making an assumption i'll answer it from the perspective of not only safety but even over tourism and then the vital protection of healthcare infrastructure you know making sure that there's enough beds to service those that are infected if there's an outbreak in hawaii for example are here so it really is to joe's point is encouraging continuing to cur encourage vaccination and safety protocols which i feel like california leads definitely in the nation if not the world on that front as well as continuing to echo that amongst the travel community you know 81 percent is great compared to the delta 50 percent america but why not continue to push uh more vaccinations to keep people safe and then in california alone you know we do have this very checkered recovery as i said and so our our new normal is really looking at spreading the love if you will and looking at times where there were times where san francisco was at capacity for example pre-covered now san francisco needs the love so a lot of our promotional efforts are driven toward those principal gateway cities of la and san francisco while some areas are at capacity yosemite is a great example of being at capacity during the normal season we don't promote yosemite and we work with them cooperatively when it makes sense to promote yosemite for example so really looking at the visitor patterns as almost yield management you uh joe can speak to the fact that that you've done that also in the city with you know lombard street etc to make sure that that we look at visitor promotion differently than just destination marketing we're now evolving into destination management so that not only the visitor has a great experience but the community sees the benefit of travel that's where we're really pushing in this new normal you know we don't um in san francisco when we look at the growth of the visitor industry we don't look at numbers of tourists we look at economic impact the reason is it's better for us to have a visitor stay longer than have twice as many visitors come and so our focus is to have a positive experience for the visitor and for the resident as carolyn said so we did not want to see an experience where people would go to lombard street and wait two hours and then and then the neighborhood the neighbors not be happy and people get their cars broken into and all this kind of stuff that doesn't work for anybody so we'd rather much more as carolyn said focus on the management so that the experience somebody has when they come here is a positive one and i think that can be done and we're going to be planning on focusing on that as we recover so that we can recover better than we were before no that's that's great um we have you mentioned a california bucket list i love this question could could you each give one place on your california bucket list and why well california is my bucket list very very political very diplomatic answer there oh and i'm i'm in one of my bucket list destinations right now and and thank you for saying that yes absolutely and and for the record i was walking over with one of our other colleagues and saying how delightful this is uh you know i mean it's just beautiful right now because people you know you i mean the streets are gorgeous and and there's just i don't know there just seems to be a new emergency even walking over this morning was just you know a lovely experience uh the good news about californians i i expect that most people uh tuning in to this our californians and and i think that's the great news is whether you're interested in wine country the sierras uh our deserts 1200 miles of ocean it's just it anywhere you want to go is great a treasure of of attractions and outdoor experiences and of course these iconic and now very popular uh urban centers um according to timeout that's that's great i didn't know about it so i'll just add i've been fortunate to be almost everywhere in california i've never been to death valley now okay so that's on my that's my probably my highest on the bucket list is getting to death valley uh no death valley for me i just wanna but in the winter time yeah yeah i don't wanna go now there's no concierge i wanna be by the ocean and hear the waves and just have some time off any specific spots where i can get a good rate right well said well said um what kind of questions this is again from a from a viewer what kind of questions are each of you are encountering from people who want to visit california or stay in hotels or come to san francisco you know are you what's open you know that was the question especially you know when we started to reopen people want to know are your attractions open are your museums open can i find a restaurant all those types of things now people understand that most things are open most museums that they know of most attractions are open but the other question is is it safe you know what are you doing what steps are you taking to ensure my safety when i come here and and for san francisco we're really proud of you know from the moment you're flying to sfo to when you check into the hotel to you go to an attraction our protocols are at the highest level in the world basically and so we're proud of that so we can we can say how uh we believe a visit to san francisco will be a positive one and it'll be a safe one too i think in addition to that sometimes the industry really struggles with the difference in county by county regulations which is confusing to the traveler so i i get a lot of questions from the industry saying can we get to a point where we're back to a california standard because it puts a burden on our staff employees that directly interface with the customer so that's something that's really frustrating and and something that we'll we'll see you know where our elected officials go both on a regional and statewide basis well a follow-up for that and i still want to hear your answer do you think we'll get to a california standard and what would that take yeah i do i mean we had it uh going we well going into covet it became countywide i think we all experienced the frustration of it being differing and then and then kind of there was this lifting of standards and now with delta going back to those um enhanced safety protocols but differing and you know i i'm reluctant to there there's areas that have no outbreaks in california there's areas that are you know it's kind of you know a checkered board but at the end of the day while delta is raging throughout the country it it certainly is helpful for consumers and employees given labor shortages etc to have some sort of standardization in those protocols so we've done it before it certainly can happen again and daniella what kind of questions are your people fielding uh what are the mandates for san francisco uh we have to explain the vaccination and that's a key one about you know if you're gonna dine inside or go to a bar that's that's really a big one for us right now uh and also what is um for the groups or the uh the social events what is the hotel doing to um address the covid situation and and protocols that were are in place okay and i'm going to come back to you with another question from a viewer what is the current morale of frontline hospitality workers uh eager to get back to normal burned out you know is there a is there an issue there yeah it's a it's a little of both there's some of us that have worked throughout the pandemic and those those are the ones you might see that are on the more burnt outside but i think the the ones coming back recently there's i've seen a change in attitude and willingness to be more of a team and excited to be back at work and doing things that maybe they weren't going to do do previous so i think there's excitement to come back to work um and it's just it's we just asked too that we you know a lot of uh hospitality and businesses aren't at full 100 capacity not everything is open due to occupancy due to staffing due to to resources so just being kind to those of us in the industry that um because i i did i go into some restaurants and i see you know we're all in this together be kind and it just brings a smile to my face we have to remember that um there are reasons why businesses are operating in a certain fashion or a certain way and just being respectful and kind that we're you know we're all trying to provide a service in a difficult time absolutely okay um i think i know the answer to this if it's a yes or no question but how has that how has the drought wildfires and other climate issues uh affected san francisco tourism and california tourism and we'll say hospitality too well you know obviously we're very concerned about climate change and what it's going to do not only to tourism but to people who live not only in california but anywhere i mean it's impacting you know the the whole world and um and i think we all have a responsibility uh to address it in a meaningful way we have not seen significant fallback yet because of fires and and drought um but we could and and that could be just another hamper to our damper to our recovery and so we are obviously very concerned about it there's no question that the brand of california and caroline is going to be more able to address this is being hit hard with the drought stories and the fire stories and and all this other stuff it um you know we are the golden state and california dreaming was always the essence and you know part of what visit california does is to kind of recreate that california dreaming and to think about california in this aspirational destination level yeah and just to follow on what joe was saying we definitely have seen we do global focus group studies every year looking at our brand and there has definitely been some brand tarnish as it relates to you know just annual hits with drought and wildfire uh there there's some positives and silver linings that come out of that in terms of california leading the way in terms of climate change mitigation that's certainly helpful for our brand but it's it's it's a longer term tenant versus the reality of what's happening real time uh we we know that our advertising definitely helps stem the tide of advertise of brand tarnish because we can communicate uh unlike you know media outlets that will show a fire that's it's as if it's raging throughout california or earthquakes etc um we try to communicate the facts for travelers of impacted areas and corridors uh or fires that might have been really a natural phenomenon that's our new narrative which shouldn't have to be a narrative because it's real wildfire is a naturally occurring phenomenon just like there's a hurricane season so that that's helping some the hardest challenge we have around dealing with uh natural natural phenomena is the media loves to cover california five times to the degree of other states so you've got a situation with washington oregon that those fires broke out first there for example this year they had wildfires last year even british columbia canada and yet the media is in love with covering california and will ignore wildfire somewhere else just as one example so we are in the spotlight and and from a negative standpoint because media loves negative news that that is a harder fight for us i i think uh danielle maybe this would be an opportunity to say how does uh climate change and conservation fit into the hospitality business plan oh as operators it's it's a huge component of making a green decision every hotel company has ways where you don't have your room cleaned every night that's saves on washing linens and towels and such the you know managing the water the power in the building i'm glad i don't have that responsibility um but yeah just with the drought and the water in the building i mean we have almost 1200 hotel rooms so that i can only imagine and you can't control what the individual is doing in the room and we've all been guilty like oh it's not my house and you leave the lights on and out the door you go so it's um there's that that we have to you know manage more so but um i think the we can do we've done a lot in the hotel industry about in in regards to the guests participating and being a part of being green we can offer it to our group guests as well and so then that way too people feel like they're doing a little you know doing some good for the environment that's great good i um yeah joe i think this probably mostly on you can you comment on plans to clean up this uh san francisco to encourage tourism to return sorry there's a handwriting issue here to encourage tourism to return we all read negative news it must have an impact uh yeah and i imagine it's i know at one point and i hate to even bring it up i know at one point new york times in all of its high and mightiness uh declared us you know san francisco as being one of the dirtier cities they were they talked about the tenderloin things like that i guess what they're asking is is there a concerted effort to do that while we're waiting for tourism to return absolutely i mean you know the uh cleanliness and safety are the two key issues that people think about when they go to a destination especially an urban destination and um and although san francisco has had challenges so does most other cities so when we look back at some of the media um negative stories about san francisco we often find that they go towards media sources that don't like san francisco's politics and and and those really amplify the story and what you know not making a political statement it's a it's just a fact there's certain media outlets that hate the word san francisco and uh are the two words and um like they hate new york or los angeles and or california honestly and so they'll pick on us more than they will pick on other places that being said we do have some issues um and we've been working very closely both the public sector and the private sector working closely together san francisco has now a billion dollars focused on helping house and helping people who are forced to live on the streets we were very concerned that the numbers of people living on the streets would have increased dramatically during the pandemic because people losing their jobs and the ability to stay in their homes some measures has helped to mitigate that but cleanliness is real key thing so we've been working very closely with the city the establishment of community benefit districts and business improvement districts that help clean up the neighborhoods we have a brand new one right here in downtown that just started last year so there are a lot of efforts being made to make sure that the city looks good and is safe for people and we realize that's going to be really important i honestly believe that the city is cleaner today than it was as we got into the pandemic and i'm walking the streets of san francisco all the time we still have a challenge with uh unhoused people that we need and we have a responsibility as a society it's not san francisco's responsibility to solve uh this issue it's it's society's responsibility and it can't be done city by city it has to be done by the state and the national government to do that because it is a national problem but we are taking steps and um i only can have confidence that these steps will help to improve the situation as we go forward good i as i understand it the city itself is putting a billion dollars into working with homelessness and things like that as well as starting some other programs um and this is my question not the the viewers question but is there something to be said for making those improvements while we have the chance while there's less tourism so that it it is a better place not only for the visitor but also for the resident is that absolutely and you know we passed measure c a few years ago that uh raised um 300 something million dollars a year to to deal with fighting the situation on the streets and providing services to people that are in desperately a need into it and so we have resources now that we did not have uh going into pandemic the city won the lawsuit that they can spend that money and this is all new this didn't happen two years ago or three years ago those resources were not available money doesn't solve all problems but it does help and so i believe that having these resources now that we didn't have before the pandemic will help the situation okay i i think this was already addressed but i'm going to ask this again if there's anything to add to this do you think vaccine mandates like the one in sf and you know around the state will help the tourism businesses i think the issue around safety is paramount and vaccines are the primary tool in the long term fight against covid so we've seen in our research actually that's just coming out that and and joe mentioned this as well but from a california perspective that visitors are more interested at this point in visiting destinations that not i mean perceived as safe or are safe and the number one indicator right now in terms of consumer sentiment around safety is vaccination rates and really that part of the core dna for communities it being vaccinations is really really important i think we need to get out more information about the fact that there's this mass disproportionately higher vaccine rate uh amongst travelers so that travelers will just feel more comfortable as they're getting to that destination moving through airports it's a lot more safe to be inside an airplane than our own household for example we need to get out that that sort of information about the safetyness of not only the traveler um and and the facilities we use to get to a destination but then the destination itself or the community for that matter you know it's really unfortunate that this vaccination has become so politicized um you know we were used to getting vaccinations our whole lives and there's vaccination requirements to go to schools and there have been since you know i was you know going to school i remember getting you know my shots at school and in fact and all of a sudden this has gotten politicized which is ridiculous it's just a health issue and it's just trying to stop a global pandemic that is killing you know hundreds of thousands of people and um it's just common sense to take precautions not only to protect yourselves but to protect others okay all right um it looks like we've only got a couple minutes left and so i'm going to ask one last question first and i you didn't get those so i'm going to ask it uh you might have to because i could not read the i um i traveled at the time there were lots of saudi arabians eastern people well-off one occasion that princess took the whole top floor of those town second floor emptied for security briefly so my question is after 9 11 all that disappeared my question is is california a welcoming location my second example is i go to cancun in may everyone down there you're talking about they're from central america spain lively scene all that stuff that's going on south of the border is huge i never experienced it so my question is did trump kill all of that desire for people south of the border spain come to california or u.s ever and our saudi arabians and middle eastern people welcome once again to california and any campaigns you know because i know two huge populations that probably don't feel lonely can i can i answer please do yeah i'm i'm glad you answered that as a matter of fact you know there there was that point where it was about anti-trumpism or whatever and actually uh i i feel we prevailed for a couple reasons one just the facts in terms of post 911 we've done very well with the middle eastern market uh they're luxury travelers you described it beautifully on point uh important part of our mix for sure and we've encouraged that um when when we saw some of that rhetoric get what we felt dangerously out of line or out of alignment with our core values for example i turned to joe and we partnered with our other gateway cities as well as the mayors of those cities and actually conducted an all dreams welcome mission to canada mexico and then even into the middle east so we've been very active of how we've even changed our marketing to more diplomatic missions coming out of that to ensure that we are frankly perceived and because the reality is we are welcoming and we know from our research that that we index higher than other states and destinations on that front i don't yeah and it's absolutely critical for the travel industry to be the leaders in making people feel welcome no matter who they are what their background is what their sexual orientation is where they come from what their religion is we have to welcome them in their in their community and and honestly most people look beyond who the president is and look at who the people are and if they feel that they're welcome when they come here by meeting people in the streets or in hotels they're goin
2021-09-18 19:12
