SF's longtime travel chief retiring: Here's when he says tourism will hopefully rebound

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- San Francisco's longtime tourism chief is retiring this month after almost two decades of bringing events conventions and tourists to the city.

"I love being able market San Francisco and tell the San Francisco's story to the world but it was just time," said SF Travel President and CEO, Joe D'Alessandro.

D'Alessandro says it's time to retire after 18 years of bringing visitors and conventions to the city, including 11 years of record-breaking tourism growth.

MORE: San Francisco now at 35% office vacancy rate, highest ever recorded: data

Downtown San Francisco was bustling with people several years ago, but according to the current numbers, the area now more vacant than ever.

"In 2019, the last year we had record breaking growth, 63% of visitor spending was from international visitors," said D'Alessandro.

D'Alessandro helped bring Super Bowl 50 to the Bay Area in 2016 and spearheaded a $500 million renovation of the Moscone Center.

"Very proud of the fact we were able to expand the Moscone Convention center and make it more attractive, more current and state of the art," he said.

But in 2020, everything came to a screeching halt.

"Far and away the pandemic was our biggest challenge," said D'Alessandro.

MORE: San Francisco launches multimillion-dollar campaign to boost tourism

The "Always San Francisco" campaign highlights the city's most iconic sights and sounds with a minute-long commercial aimed at attracting tourists.

San Francisco was one of the first American cities to shut down completely during the pandemic, hotels were shuttered and small businesses suffered the recovery is still happening.

"And it's going to take us a few more years to get back to where we were before, what's unfortunate about that it hurts the businesses we love as San Franciscans," D'Alessandro added.

He says open air drug dealing has created a real perception issue for visitors around the world.

"I think the city is working hard to make the situation better, in terms of violent crime rate, we're one of the safest big cities in the U.S.," he said.

MORE: Chinese tourists noticeably absent from San Francisco, numbers show

Chinese tourists have still not come back to the numbers SF saw prior to the pandemic. China was once San Francisco's top international market.

Scott Beck from Toronto will soon take the reigns as tourism czar. D'Alessandro has some advice.

"I think my best advice is stay passionate, sometimes you feel you're getting punched a few times when you say you're representing San Francisco, but if you stay passionate and love it, everything's going to be ok," said D'Alessandro.

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