San Diego County 2016 Visitor Industry General Facts

Visitors to San Diego County:

There were 34.3 million visitors to San Diego, of which more than 17.2 million were overnight and more than 17.1 million were day visitors.

Visitor Spending:

Visitors to San Diego spent over $9.9 billion at thousands of San Diegan businesses during their stay. Seventy percent of those dollars are spent at businesses other than lodging.

San Diego Hospitality Industry Employment:

The visitor industry employs about 180,900 San Diegans in fields directly related to the hospitality industry, including lodging, food service, attractions, and transportation. Source: EDD as of Jan 2016

San Diego Convention Center:

At the San Diego Convention Center, 71 out-of-town conventions and trade shows were held, with an estimated attendance of 553,283 individuals. These events represent approximately $620 million in direct spending by convention delegates. Source: SDCCC

Hotel Occupancy:

San Diego County’s average hotel occupancy was 76.4% and the daily room rate averaged $150.64. Source: STR

Hotel Rooms:

San Diego has approximately 539 hotel, motel, bed & breakfast and casino hotel properties, with 60,488 rooms available to visitors.

Arrivals to San Diego County:

An estimated 9.96 million air passengers arrived at Lindbergh Field, which is served by a total of 17 airline passenger carriers. Amtrak arrivals into San Diego County totaled more than 807,000 people. Southbound and westbound traffic into the County totaled 68.6 million vehicles. Sources: SDRAA, Amtrak and CalTrans

Tax Revenue:

In San Diego County, nearly $246 million was collected in Transient Occupancy Tax revenue for fiscal year 2015 (July 2014 -June 2015). Source: Cities in San Diego County
Additional sales taxes and property taxes from visitor industry businesses grow the total tax revenues generated by visitors to an estimated $704.6 million annually.

Population:

The population of San Diego County is estimated to be 3.3 million. San Diego ranks as the nation’s fifth largest county.
*2015 Calendar Year Data
STR hotel data is revised monthly, and could change slightly from date of report.