SAN DIEGO — Travel is bouncing back and so too are the millions of dollars that local tourism officials plan to spend this year on luring visitors to San Diego over rival vacation spots across the U.S.
Thanks to a rebound in leisure travel that is now exceeding prepandemic levels, San Diego will have $38 million to spend exclusively on tourism promotion — from TV and online advertising to helping fund popular events like the thunder boat races and the San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival that draw out-of-towners. That’s up about $10 million from just a year earlier, although still short of the $48 million allocated in fiscal year 2019-2020.
The single biggest recipient of this year’s money, which comes from a 2% surcharge on hotel room stays in San Diego, is the San Diego Tourism Authority. Of the nearly $35 million it is getting for the current fiscal year, more than half — $19.5 million — will be spent on promotional ads, both in Western cities and in two new markets, Denver and Dallas.
