SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. – San Luis Obispo County travel industry leaders are optimistic tourism will remain strong in the area and continue to flourish in the near future, as well as for many years to come.

“We are coming off a record year in 2022, and we were able to maintain that, those same levels in 2023, so we’re really happy about that,” said Mark Eads, Visit SLO CAL board member and Embassy Suites Area General Manager. “We expect it to remain strong. With the work that we’ve been doing with Visit SLO CAL, the marketing the destination, we see the return on that investment, and with those dollars that we’re investing, we expect visitorship to remain high for the next five years for sure and beyond.”

Visit SLO CAL, the county’s non-profit destination marketing and management organization, recently held its 2023 Destination Summit at the Embassy Suites by Hilton in San Luis Obispo.

Attendees at the event, which included those in the local travel and hospitality industry were essentially provided with a “state of San Luis Obispo County tourism.” According to important industry metrics, tourism in San Luis Obispo County is quite healthy and is plays a pivotal role in the county economy.

“Tourism continues to be a major driver to our economy, currently the number two economic driver in San Luis Obispo County inching up on number one to $2.15 billion economic impact last year putting almost 23,000 residents in this county to work every single day,” said Visit SLO CAL CEO Chuck Davison. “It’s helping bring down the taxes for all of us with the TOT taxes collected here locally and tourists spending money here, and the sales tax is collected, that makes it easier for all of us to live here with not such a high tax burden, so we continue to believe that tourism is a major vertical and driver of this economy, and we’re partnering with all kinds of other partners in the market to make sure that it continues to advance.”

In 2022, 7.4 million travelers visited the county, helping produce a record-breaking $2.15 billion in travel-related spending, a 13.8% increase from the previous year, and a 6% increase from the previous high in 2019.

Visit SLO CAL, along with many other partners throughout the county, is working on number of ways to help continue to push those numbers higher in the years to come.

Learn more about the future of San Luis Obispo County tourism tonight on News Channel 3-12 at 4 p.m., 5 p.m. and 6 p.m.