San Francisco Travel Association is planning to focus on increasing the length of the stay of Indian visitors in San Francisco. For this, it aims to target the newer group of travellers.
“We look at the spending pattern of the travellers because we want to be environmentally sustainable destination. Our strategy is to have fewer travellers staying for longer duration. It is a sustainable form of tourism,” said Joe D' Alessandro, President and CEO, San Francisco Travel Association.
Average length of the stay for an Indian visitor in California is about 14 days. According to an estimate, on an average an Indian stays in San Francisco for a week, he added.
According to the figures provided by the association, around 2.06 lakh Indians travelled the destination in 2018 the number which is likely to reach 2.16 lakh travellers in 2019-- an increase of 5 per cent. In 2020, it is anticipating that the number would go up to 2.30 lakh.
“India is the seventh largest market for us in terms of total travellers. On the other hand, in terms of spending, it is the third largest market and in the coming two-three years it will become the second largest market after China,” said Alessandro.
Top markets for San Francisco are China, UK, Germany while in terms of expenditure China is ranked number 1 followed by UK and India.
San Francisco Travel is the city's official destination marketing organisation which promotes the destination for conventions, meetings, events and leisure travel.