California Tourism Highlights

 Importance of travel and tourism to the California economy

• Visitors to California spent $97.6 billion in 2008. Travel spending increased by 0.8 percent over the preceding year. ⁽¹⁾
• During 2008, travel spending in California directly supported 924,000 jobs with earnings of $30.6 billion. Travel spending generated the greatest number of jobs in accommodation and food services (533,000) and arts, entertainment and recreation (227,400 jobs) ⁽¹⁾
• Over 19 percent of all travel spending in the state in 2008 was attributable to international travel.
• Travel spending in 2008 generated $2.2 billion in local taxes and $3.6 billion in state taxes. ⁽¹⁾

Visitor volume and market share

• Approximately 351 million domestic and international visitors traveled to and through California in 2008. ^(2,4,5,6,9)

Domestic Travel

• 338 million domestic visitors traveled to and through California in 2008, down -1.0 percent from 2007.⁽²⁾ Californians themselves are the mainstay of the state's travel and tourism industry, comprising 86 percent of domestic travel, or 290 million person-trips⁽²⁾.
• California’s top out-of-state domestic markets are Arizona, Nevada, Texas, Oregon, Washington and Illinois.⁽³⁾
• Total leisure visitor volume increased three percent in 2008 as gas prices fell in the second half of the year. California tourism also benefited from in-state travel in 2008 as travelers focused on closer-to- home destinations amidst rising airfares and a waning economy. ⁽²⁾
• California has the largest market share of domestic travel among all 50 states with a mark of 11.3 percent in 2008.⁽²⁾ California had a 11.4 percent share of domestic leisure travel in 2008.⁽²⁾
• Approximately 22.7 million domestic travelers flew to and through California on U.S. carriers in 2008. Domestic air traffic at California airports decreased by 3.6 percent over 2007.  ^(7,8,9) 

• Of California’s approximately 13.4 million international visitors 5.5 million were from overseas in 2008. California enjoyed a 21.7 percent share of all overseas travel to the U.S. ^(4,9)
• Preliminary California's top overseas visitor markets in 2008 were: United Kingdom (818,000), Japan (629,000), Germany (393,000), Australia (341,000), France (301,000), S. Korea (300,000), China PRC- not including Hong Kong (273,000), and Taiwan (189,000).^(4,9)
• Approximately 8.1 million Mexicans visited California in 2008. Of this total, 378,000 arrived by air, with the remainder traveling to California by land or sea. Both overall Mexican travel, -8.7%, and Mexican air travel, -11.7%, declined in 2008 primarily because of poor economic conditions in Mexico including a weak exchange rate for the peso.^(4,6,9)
• Approximately 1.3 million Canadians traveled to and through California in 2008, a 7% increase from 2007. This total represents 7.5% of all Canadian travel to the US. About 73% of Canadian travel to California is by air, with the remainder by land and sea.  Eight-five percent of California’s Canadian visitors, too, are from British Columbia, Alberta, or Ontario.^(5,9
  
   

Sources:

⁽¹⁾       California Travel Impacts by County, 1992-2007, 2008 Prelim. State Estimates, Dean Runyan Associates, Inc., March 2009.
⁽²⁾       D.K. Shifflet & Associates.
⁽³⁾     TNS TravelsAmerica, 2008.
⁽⁴⁾       Overseas and Mexican Visitors to California, 2008, CIC Research, Inc., July 2009.
⁽⁵⁾      Statistics Canada.
⁽⁶⁾     “Mexican Visitors to California, 2008”, special analysis for the CTTC by CIC Research, August 2009.
⁽⁷⁾    California Air Traffic Analysis - Interactive Tool, Dean Runyan Associates, Inc. 2008-2009.
⁽⁸⁾     Individual California Airports.
⁽⁹⁾     CTTC Research