On May 2, local leaders gathered at Hotel Casa Del Mar for the 15th annual Santa Monica Travel & Tourism Summit, featuring an unveiling of the 2023 Tourism Economic and Fiscal Impact summary report for the city. The report tracked the ongoing recovery of Santa Monica’s travel industry coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, and touched on statistics like visitor spending, job creation and generated tax revenues.
In 2023, Santa Monica had 4,637,700 visitors, which was a 12.8% decrease from the 2022 total of 5,320,500. While this also meant total visitor days were down from 2022, a 9% decrease, the average length of visitor stay was up from 1.4 days in 2022 to 1.46 days in 2023.
Visitor spending was deemed another challenge, as the city was unable to hit the billion-dollar mark, with visitors spending $938.1 million in total last year, a 2.5% drop from 2022. However, a positive was that per capita daily visitor spending was $138.21, a rise of nearly $10 from the year prior. One reasoning provided behind the softer retail spending was a higher pricing for hotels and lodging, which has gouged visitor budgets that may have been spent elsewhere.
International visitors, called a "silver lining" due to longer stays and spending more money in town, did just that as the 1.12 million visitors spent $366.6 million, up over 11% from 2022. The international number buoyed a weaker United States domestic visitor market, as US visitor volume to Santa Monica was 3.5 million in 2023, down 16.1% from 2022.
One highlight from the report comes from more than $62 million going directly into the City’s general fund from the Transient Occupancy Tax, up 5.6% from 2022. Contributions from the tax, supported entirely by overnight hotel guests, plays a key role in funding city services like the Santa Monica Police Department, the Santa Monica Fire Department and school systems.
Despite some lagging numbers, Santa Monica Travel & Tourism President and CEO Misti Kerns stated that there is much to look forward to, including the upcoming Sandbourne Santa Monica and Regent Santa Monica Beach hotel openings, as well as new cultural experiences like the return of Cirque du Soleil to the Santa Monica Pier in October.
"The notion of tentative optimism encapsulates our collective mindset — a balance between hope for brighter days ahead and a pragmatic understanding of the hurdles we still face," Kerns said. "The past few years have been a testament to our industry’s ability to weather storms, adapt to changing landscapes and emerge stronger and more resilient."
A keynote address at the summit was given by Visit California President and CEO Carolina Beteta, who also received the Jeff King Tourism Champion of the Year award at the event. Beteta stated that 2023 visitors to California as a whole improved on 2022, finally passing pre-pandemic thresholds, and added that tax revenue generated $12.7 billion for the state and added about 65,000 new jobs.
Beteta also shared new marketing ideas from Visit California, wanting messaging to embody the core components of the state being playful and open minded. She noted that this includes marketing towards the international market, with the state having an opportunity for a surge of international travelers over the next two years.
"We really do set up for inspiration, looking at casting that net far and wide and getting people to think about California, because if they’re not thinking about California on a global basis, they’ll never make it to Santa Monica, so that’s really our job," Beteta said.
In addition to Beteta’s award, Shore Hotel Front Desk Supervisor Ramon Jimenez-Bravo was awarded the Thelma Parks Tourism Spirit Award for his "exceptional service in the hospitality industry," being given a $1,000 scholarship and a Santa Monica "staycation" provided by Travel & Tourism and the Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce. The award wasn’t the only commendation for the Shore, as the hotel was noted as having been named the number-one hotel in the United States by TripAdvisor’s 2024 Best of the Best Traveler’s Choice Awards.
The event also included an international market panel featuring Travel & Tourism representatives from Australia/New Zealand, Canada, France, Germany and the United Kingdom/Ireland; as well as recognition for Travel & Tourism’s Board of Directors Chair Neil Carrey. Video messages were sent in by City Manager David White and Mayor Phil Brock, with the mayor thanking the Travel & Tourism team for a "continued investment in our great city and for everything you to do keep Santa Monica [an] unmatched place to visit."
Along with praise for local hotels and restaurants, Brock also complemented the local arts scene as a tourist attraction, including the weekly Downtown Santa Monica walking tours and the recent introduction of Anne Carmack as the city’s Poet Laureate.
"I know more than anyone how important [tourist] investment and the resulting momentum is to our economic recovery, and especially our resiliency, [and] we will continue to celebrate our economic growth and to enhance the cultural viability of our community," Brock said.
