""Now more than ever, tourism is creating financial rewards for every level of our community, from highly skilled professionals to workers just entering the job market and everyone in between. 

Even people not employed in tourism benefit from the strength tourism brings to the City's overall economy, plus the hotel and sales taxes paid by visitors." 
Included in the findings were the following: 

• Visitors to San Francisco spent $6.55 billion in the City in 1999. 
• The volume of San Francisco visitors increased by 1.6% over 1998. 
• Visitor spending in San Francisco increased by 0.1% over the previous year. 
• There were 146,000 visitors in San Francisco on an average day. 
• Visitors to San Francisco spent a total of $17.9 million on an average day.
• Each resident of San Francisco would have to spend an additional $8,300 per year to replace visitor spending in the City. 

Data for the first quarter of 2000 shows hotel occupancy is up 7.6% over 1999 and average daily room rates are up 12.2%. 

"This is the best first quarter we've ever had," said SFCVB Research Manager David Bratton. 

In a survey of recent San Francisco hotel guests, the average spending was $233 per person, per day. The average annual household income of San Francisco hotel guests was $98,700. 

Not surprising for a destination that calls itself "Everybody's Favorite City," 81% of guests were repeat visitors. When asked if they would return to San Francisco, 93.9% said they would definitely come back, 5.1% said they didn't know and only 1% said they would not return. 

"We have the ideal customer profile," Bratton explained. "Our average guest is affluent, likes to spend, is satisfied with their experience here and plans to return." 

The primary reason for visiting San Francisco was evenly split between leisure travel (37.6%), convention or group meeting (32.4%) and transient business (30%). 

"This is important because it shows that San Francisco's tourism industry is equally spread over the three segments of travel," Bratton said. "That makes our tourism industry much more stable." 

Of hotel guests from outside the Bay Area, 87% arrived by air. San Francisco International Airport (SFO) was the arrival point for 94.3%, followed by airports in Oakland (4.7%) and San Jose (1%). San Francisco hotel guests arriving through SFO accounted for 78% of hotel guest spending, accounting for $2.8 billion spent with San Francisco businesses last year. 

The most popular items bought by visitors last year included retail food or candy consumed in San Francisco (39.1%), women's clothing (36.6%), souvenirs (35.9%), cards and postcards (33.5%) and men's clothing (30.5%). Other popular purchases included candy to take home, wine or spirits, food to take home, medicine and health products, jewelry, children's clothing, cosmetics, toys and artwork. 

Conventions and group meetings generated over $1.6 billion for San Francisco businesses in 1999. San Francisco convention attendees spent an average of $248.90 per person per day with a total spending average of $1,040.00 per person per trip. 

The average household income of San Francisco convention attendees was $108,000 and 90% of them arrived by air. 

The average length of stay was 4.18 nights. Combining business and leisure was a popular trend as 53% of convention attendees surveyed were on "combined business/pleasure trips." Of those, 75% extended their stay in San Francisco by an average of 2.2 nights to enjoy leisure activities. 

California continued to be the leading feeder market for San Francisco, with 26.4% of all domestic hotel guests coming from within the Golden State. By market, 8.5% of domestic hotel guests came from Los Angeles, 7.7% came from New York, 6.8% came from San Francisco/Oakland/San Jose, 4.4% came from Chicago and 3.9% came from Sacramento/Stockton/Modesto. 

International visitors accounted for 24% of all San Francisco hotel guests. Overall, international travel to San Francisco increased by 8% in 1999. The largest overseas markets were the United Kingdom (383,000 visitors, down 6.4% from 1998), Japan (357,000 visitors, up 12.3%), Germany (300,000 visitors, up 6%), France (209,000 visitors, down 1.9%) South Korea (123,000 visitors, up 44.7%) and Taiwan (123,000 visitors, up 9.8%). 

San Francisco ranked fifth in the nation as a gateway city for overseas arrival, following New York, Los Angeles, Miami and Orlando.