Buried lede: San Francisco has lost 60,000 tourism-related jobs

 We was there once.  Do we want to go back?   No desire too.

In what's been called a buried lede, San Francisco, one of America's most tourist-desirable storybook cities, has lost 60,000 tourism industry workers.

This tweet provides the first indicator:

Again the Chronicle buries the lede.

SF has lost *60,000* hospitality & tourism jobs. A
mere mention in a piece today on how projected revenue for the NCAA regional championship has been cut by 1/2 because nobody overnights here anymore. Who would want to? We are in big trouble.

— MissionLoco (@MissionLoco) March 29, 2025

Actually, it wasn't their scoop, the San Francisco Business Times reported the number, according to the Chronicle article, which ran yesterday. I found it here:

“The NCAA Tournament’s economic impact is significantly driven by attendees staying overnight, as they spend more than local attendees,” the SFTA explained to the Chronicle in a statement. “This year, we’re forecasting a lower rate of overnight visitation compared to 2022 due to the state of the economy.

“S.F. Travel does not have access to NCAA ticket sales data to verify the actual number of attendees who are visitors. Given the current economic outlook, we are being more conservative in our estimate for this year’s tournament.”

The previous time NCAA Tournament games were played at Chase Center, they were held in the wake of the COVID pandemic. The financial impact then was essential for the city, which has lost more than 60,000 jobs in tourism and hospitality according to the San Francisco Business Times.

Which doesn't make it any less damning. I searched hard for that story and those data -- and the Chronicle didn't have much of anything on the matter.

That such a huge number of jobs, in a city of only 805,000, with a GDP of less than $1 billion, could be lost should indeed be a front-page story. The San Francisco Chamber of Commerce does not list it specifically as an industry, quite possibly because it's hard to break down and separate tourist from local revenues on hotels, restaurants and attractions, but there is reason to think it's pretty big as it delivers $8.8 billion in spending in the city, according to Axios.

But they're losing jobs.

And the reasons why are no surprise.

Here is what's emblematic of the tourist experience in San Francisco:

Last night around 3:30-4am I was shot at twice near my hotel in SF. They chased me to my hotel and shot the second time when I ran inside and got one of the staff to come out.We both heard a glock and he saw the gun while I saw the bullet impacts. I’m still shaking.😢@garrytan

— Deep Prasad (yug-cybera) 🏴‍☠️ (@Deepneuron) March 29, 2025

Hotel occupancy is 65% of what it used to be before the pandemic, citing city statistics. No occupancy, no demand; no demand, then it's layoffs.

I used to live in San Francisco, too. It definitely didn't used to be like this:

Only in San Francisco can you find a nice bar with live music on a Friday night to be completely empty. pic.twitter.com/t9LdvSEOOv

— Domestic Terrorist 🐺 (@domestic415) March 29, 2025

And here is what is really going on:

If you end this, you end 80% of the problem in San Francisco. @DanielLurie https://t.co/JORUw2nYAU

— T Wolf 🌁 (@Twolfrecovery) March 29, 2025

Hi @SaraCarterDC, as you know, there's an organized drug dealing network of illegal alien Hondurans fueled by the Sinaloa Cartel up and down the west coast of the United States. 🧵 pic.twitter.com/xcY8HmHEhL

— T Wolf 🌁 (@Twolfrecovery) March 29, 2025

This is sad stuff, redolent of the ruin happening in Europe. The most beautiful cities in the world are being turned into pigholes, with organized crime the dominant nexus in all of them, derived from drugs and human smuggling.

The NGOs that service the drug dealers, homeless users of drugs and illegals have been getting rich (at least until DOGE came in and we will have to wait and see.)

That's come at the expense of legitimate businesses that show off San Francisco's best features -- culinary, hospitality, history, and scenery. As they shrink, the freak-show sectors grow. Thank a leftist for this state of affairs.

And that's sad, because this was one of America's great cities.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2025/03/buried_lede_san_francisco_has_lost_60_000_tourism_related_jobs.html