California Statistics & Trends
The links on this page will take you to current and archived versions of the same reports that can be found on the Find Research home page. To easily access all of the most recent reports you can return to the home page by clicking here.
ECONOMIC IMPACT OF TRAVEL IN CALIFORNIA
Total direct travel spending in California was $97.6 billion in 2008, surpassing 2007 spending impacts by 0.8 percent. Travel spending in California directly supported 924,000 jobs, with earnings of $30.6 billion. Travel spending generated the greatest number of jobs in arts, entertainment and recreation (227,400 jobs), and accommodations and food service (533,000).
Travel spending in 2008 generated $1.6 billion in local taxes and $2.8 billion in state taxes.
Full report: California Travel Impacts by County 2008, by Dean Runyan Associates, April 2009
Detailed tables on travel-generated spending, employment, earnings, and tax receipts in California for 2008 and for each of its 58 counties from 1992 through 2007.
Prior Years:
2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001, 2000
INTERACTIVE COUNTY TRAVEL IMPACT REPORTS
Create your own charts and tables showing statewide or specific county travel spending, jobs, and tax impacts. Source: Dean Runyan Associates.
Create Customized Reports Here
DOMESTIC TRAVEL TO CALIFORNIA
California was the destination for 338 million domestic person-stays in 2008. A person-stay is defined as a visitor trip made to a specific locale within the state. If someone travels from New York to San Francisco and then continues on to Los Angeles, he or she would be counted as two person-stays because two locales were visited. If a party of two made the same trip it would be counted as two person-stays for each person or a total of four person-stays.
84% of California's domestic leisure visitors in 2007 (2008 data available in July, 2009) were residents of California. Top states for in-bound leisure travel were Nevada (3.2%), Arizona (2.7%), Texas (1.0%), Washington (0.9%), Utah (0.8%) and Oregon (0.7%).
Full report: California Domestic Travel Report, 2008, by D.K. Shifflet & Associates, July, 2009
Full year-end reports on travel to and within California by California residents and out-of-state residents. Includes visitor volumes (for years 2004-2006), trip characteristics, visitor origins and demographics
Prior Years:
INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL TO CALIFORNIA
Approximately 13.4 million international visitors traveled to California in 2008. Five and a half million were from overseas origins, 6.7 million were from Mexico and 1.2 million were from Canada. Due in large part to strong exchange rates in Europe and to a lesser extent Canada, overseas arrivals increased by 6% compared to 2007 and Canadian arrivals increased by approximately 5%. Because of high gas prices in the first half of the year and poor economic conditions, travel from Mexico was down 9% year over year. Collectively international travelers spent approximately $18.3 billion in the state accounting for 19% of all visitor spending.
California's top overseas markets in 2008 were the United Kingdom (798,000), Japan (634,000), Austalia (340,000), France (305,000) and South Korea (305,000), China (280,000), and Taiwan (190,000)
Full report: Overseas and Mexican Visitors to California, 2008 (Full Report ) by CIC Research Inc., July 2009.
Full year-end reports detailing visitor profiles and trip characteristics of travel to California from top overseas markets and for Mexican air travelers.
Prior years:
Canada Travel Trade Barometer (Q2)
Germany Travel Trade Barometer (Q2)
Mexico Travel Trade Barometer (Q2)
UK Travel Trade Barometer (Q2)
CALIFORNIA MONTHLY LODGING REPORTS - The lodging reports include occupancy, room rate and revenue per available room data from the most recent month as well as year-to-date calculations. Data is reported for the United States, Pacific States, California and 12 California sub-regions. Several of the sub-regions are further broken out to show data at a more local level.
Maps detailing the geography of each region can be viewed by clicking here.
2009-January February March April May June July August September
2008-January February March April May June July August September October November December
2007-January February March April May June July August September October November December
2006-January February March April May June July August September October November December
CALIFORNIA MONTHLY PORT-OF-ENTRY ARRIVALS- One of the most reliable measures of inbound international travel to the US. The term "port-of-entry arrival" refers to the number of residents of foreign countries that enter the US through a given port- whether it be an airport, a land border crossing checkpoint or sea port- and go through US customs.
The point-of-entry (POE) arrival figure is different from a visitor count for two reasons. One, someone who enters California through customs at a given airport does not necessarily stay in California to visit; he or she may immediately get on a plane and travel elsewhere. The second is that not all visitors to California enter the US through a California port. Many enter through a different port and then continue their travels to California.
While POE figures and visitor figures are different, the directionality of the two are usually aligned closely. Year-over-year POE changes are a good way to gauge travel from a country to California.
2009 - Year to Date August 2009
2008 - December and Full Year 2008
2007 - December and Full Year 2007
2006 - December and Full Year 2006
CALIFORNIA AIRPORTS MONTHLY TRAFFIC REPORTS- This report provides domestic, international and total passenger traffic at California's ten busiest airports for interstate and international travel.
2009- Year to Date September 2009
2008- December and Full Year 2008