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San Fran seeing biggest convention boom since dotcoms
First, there were record-breaking tourism numbers. Now, San Francisco is looking to have its biggest convention season in at least five years.
“Next year promises to be by far the most robust for business and leisure travel in San Francisco since the dot.com boom,” says the San Francisco Business Journal.
Convention business will reach more than 900,000 hotel room nights in 2008, well above the 740,000 room nights booked by conventions this year, according to end-of-fiscal-year projections released by the San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau.
At the same time, overall tourism should total about 16 million visitors, 2 million more than the last time convention business reached such heights in 2003.
“There is definitely more leisure travel into San Francisco, both domestically and on the international side,” said Dan Kelleher, general manager of the 1,500-room San Francisco Marriott. Rates are also up.
The average San Francisco hotel room got $7.50 per night more expensive in the first half of the year, according to PKF Consulting. The average cost: $176.
Domestic travel is up, thanks in part to the trend toward shorter vacations that do not involve airports and airlines, tourism officials say.
Report by David Wilkening
David
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