#tourism-recovery

#tourism-recovery

Of the 172 hotel markets in the U.S. that CoStar tracks, San Francisco is the least recovered post-pandemic, except for the Hawaiian island of Maui, Stathokostopoulos said. Tourism has been severely hurt on the island, the site of deadly wildfires that largely destroyed the town of Lahaina in August 2023. San Francisco did not experience any kind of natural disaster, but it still suffers from "reputational challenges" around crime and cleanliness, Stathokostopoulos said, despite recovery of the tourism business gaining momentum.

Excitement on the ground is only exceeded by the facts, after a record-setting summer that saw downtown hotels finally beat pre-pandemic occupancy rates. Convention business is booming with the new Summit building complete, and cruise and concert travelers are back in full force. The average room now fetches north of $300 a night-a sign that demand has rarely been higher. And yet much higher it will go, with optimism running at a fever pitch ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

I took this photo in late January, when I went back to Palmyra for the first time in three decades for a look at how the iconic site and city had fared over the years of war when it was inaccessible to tourists.