San Diego Set to Break Tourism Record

America’s Finest City is set to have its biggest year in tourism yet.

By the end of 2014, the city will have brought in more than 33 million visitors that will have spent more than $9 billion combined in the city, according to a report released by the San Diego Tourism Authority.

“This was a blockbuster of a year for tourism,” Rod LaBranche, board chairman of the San Diego Tourism Authority, responsible for marketing San Diego as a travel destination, said in a press release. “This demonstrates that a sustained marketing effort is enormously effective in attracting visitors to our region, which is essential for San Diego’s economy.”

The year will be the city’s best on record, with more than 16.2 million hotel room nights sold and $244 million accrued from a hotel transient occupancy tax revenue. Visitors will have spent $9.2 million while in the city.

The surge was in large part spurred by a $13 million multi-platform marketing campaign and several promotional initiatives aimed at bringing new visitors into the region.

The campaign worked to draw in new tourists from China and Mexico and marketing the city as a visitor destination in addition to their work with other overseas marketing efforts. The SDTA also produced a series of videos from neighborhoods within the county and a new digital campaign.

In 2015, the SDTA plans to launch a brand-new marketing campaign that will debut in February and a documentary produced by National Geographic highlighting San Diego as one of their “World’s Smartest Cities,” as well as other new initiatives.

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