California tourism bounces back, but misses China

With temperatures rising and the state Legislature on break, summer is officially underway. That also means the state is seeing an influx in tourism, as folks from within and outside California pump money into the state’s restaurants, hotels and attractions.

That’s something of a return to form. In May, Gov. Gavin Newsom touted California’s tourism draw while standing atop San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge. He cited the latest report from Visit California, a nonprofit that promotes California travel and tourism, which found that travel spending in California climbed to $150.4 billion in 2023. That’s a 5.6% increase from the year before and a record high from 2019’s $144.9 billion spent before the pandemic.

That money also helped boost local economies in 2023, according to the report, creating 64,900 new jobs and generating $12.7 billion in tax revenue, a 3.7% increase from 2022. 

Ryan Becker, a spokesperson for Visit California, says the 2023 figures show a “normalization of travel patterns” that was first upended when the pandemic was at its peak and travel restrictions were enacted worldwide. It was then followed by a massive rebound when rules were lifted and people were eager to travel — a period of time known as “revenge travel.”

• Becker: “What we started seeing last year is an evening out. There’s still good year-over-year growth, but it’s a normal trajectory instead of these very vertical peaks and valleys.”

But not all regions are bouncing back equally. For instance, although travel spending for the San Francisco Bay Area in 2023 increased 7.5% from 2023 to the year before — outperforming the state as a whole — tourism spending there still hasn’t exceeded pre-pandemic levels. 

One likely reason: A lack of tourists from Asia, specifically China. Visitors from Asia and Pacific were “the largest contributor to international travel spending in 2019,” but only spent roughly half as much in 2023 as they did before the pandemic.

• Jerry Nickelsburg, faculty director of the UCLA Anderson Forecast and an economics adjunct professor: “The most important factor here is the absence of Chinese tourists. … The places where those Chinese tourists went have not recovered the tourism demand that they had pre-pandemic.”

Extreme weather events, such as wildfires and rising temperatures, can also dampen tourism: Over the weekend, a motorcyclist touring Death Valley died due to the extreme heat. Visit California is expecting to publish a report in five to six months about how California’s travel industry can deal with climate change, Becker said.

Though Democratic officials, including Gov. Newsom, are quick to tout the state’s employment rate and job growth, most of those gains are propped up by public-sector jobs — supported by public money. 

Labor force data in the private sector, however, paints a grimmer picture. As CalMatters economy reporter Levi Sumagaysay explains, California has a 5.2% unemployment rate, the highest in the nation for the past four months. And a recent analysis by the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office finds that private-sector industries have lost a total of 340,000 jobs since reaching their post-pandemic peak.

Leading those job losses is the tech industry, which underwent a hiring spree during the pandemic, followed by finance. Three other industries (transportation and warehousing, business services and manufacturing) also lost 3% of their jobs.

The only industries in the private sector that continue to add jobs are accommodations and food services, personal services and private education. But while “all job growth is good” according to Brooke Armour, president of the California Center for Jobs and the Economy, job loss in certain industries impact state spending, since the budget relies heavily on personal income tax revenue.

• Armour: “We’re losing high-wage jobs that help fund the (state) budget. We’re gaining hospitality and service jobs, which are low-wage jobs. We’ve hollowed out the middle-class jobs.”

Learn more about the state’s labor force in Levi’s story.

To encourage more low-income, first-generation college students to pursue careers in math and science, California poured millions of dollars in 2022 to expand Math, Engineering and Science Achievement programs, or MESA, in community colleges. But how well students are doing in those programs remains unclear, writes Li Khan of CalMatters’ College Journalism Network.

MESA programs seek to boost the number of Black, Latino and Native American students in STEM industries. Ninety-one out of California’s 115 community college campuses have established MESA programs, and eligible students must be both low-income and a first-generation college student.

Two years ago, the MESA directors association successfully lobbied for an additional $36.9 million to enable more community colleges to establish MESA programs, bringing its total statewide budget to $39.4 million. As of fall 2023, over 4,200 students were enrolled in a MESA program, and they have access to tutoring, academic counseling and other resources. 

But many community colleges still need to hire staff, find the required amount of space to house a MESA center and recruit students. Hiring a program director can take a long time too: A year and a half after receiving its grant, for instance, Laney College in Oakland still doesn’t have a director. 

Data on the programs’ effectiveness is also limited. Information about students isn’t broken down by race, gender or major, and the most complete data of MESA students who transferred to universities dates back to 2017. 

• Edrina Rashidi, the officer of advocacy for the Community College Association of MESA Directors: “We actually have no way of measuring our success, still, with the Chancellor’s Office.”

Read more about MESA programs in Li’s story.

California firefighters with post traumatic stress disorder struggle to find medical help, and face a complex workers compensation system that often denies PTSD-related claims. CalMatters environmental reporter Julie Cart and producer Robert Meeks have a video segment on Julie’s story on Cal Fire firefighters battling the system as part of our partnership with PBS SoCal. Watch it here. 

SoCalMatters airs at 5:58 p.m. weekdays on PBS SoCal and is available on YouTube.