Conventions Help Drive San Francisco’s Tourism Recovery

Conventions and corporate meetings are playing an increasingly important role in San Francisco’s tourism recovery, with AI and technology conferences contributing to hotel demand and event bookings at Moscone Center.

The city is projected to welcome 24.2 million visitors in 2026, with visitor spending expected to reach $9.9 billion. surpassing the city’s pre-pandemic record of $9.6 billion set in 2019, according to forecasts released by the San Francisco Travel Association (SF Travel).

Beyond the broader tourism gains, meetings and conventions are among the clearest indicators of recovery.  “The convention pipeline is doing what we built it to do,” said Anna Marie Presutti, president and CEO of SF Travel. “Thirty-eight events at Moscone Center this year, RevPAR growing nearly 8% on top of last year’s 14% gain – this is what recovery looks like.”

Moscone Center’s event calendar has expanded over the past three years.  The convention center hosted 25 events, generating 399,000 room nights in 2024. That climbed to 34 events and 635,000 room nights in 2025. In 2026, 38 scheduled events are expected to generate more than 674,000 room nights.

AI and technology conferences are helping fuel much of that momentum. Events including Microsoft Ignite, Figma Config, HubSpot’s Inbound, AVEVA World, and conferences hosted by companies like Snowflake and Databricks are helping.

Super Bowl Makes an Impact

The rebound has also translated into broader economic gains. San Francisco hosted 23.7 million visitors in 2025 who spent $9.4 billion, according to SF Travel. Tourism activity generated $655 million in tax revenue and supported nearly 64,000 jobs across hospitality, retail, restaurants, and cultural institutions.

Mayor Daniel Lurie pointed to February’s Super Bowl as another sign of momentum returning to the city.

“San Francisco is a city on the rise,” Lurie said. “We welcomed hundreds of thousands of visitors for a safe and successful Super Bowl week that generated hundreds of millions of dollars in economic impact, and we are continuing to build on that momentum.”

Still, San Francisco’s convention sector has not fully recovered to pre-pandemic expectations. Shortly after joining SF Travel, Presutti identified 750,000 annual convention room nights as the benchmark that would signal a full recovery for the city’s meetings industry. Current projections suggest San Francisco may not hit that number until 2028 or 2029.

That gap underscores both the progress the city has made and the work that remains, particularly as international visitation continues to lag behind domestic and business travel recovery.

According to Tourism Economics, overnight international visitation to San Francisco is expected to increase from 2.2 million visitors in 2025 to 2.3 million in 2026. International visitor spending is projected to rise 5.8% to $5.2 billion despite ongoing geopolitical tensions and economic uncertainty impacting inbound U.S. travel.

SF Travel is looking to capitalize on global attention from upcoming sporting events, including the FIFA World Cup.

“Super Bowl LX and the FIFA World Cup bring visitors who spend well beyond the events and put San Francisco on the world stage,” Presutti said. “They give us the opportunity to showcase our city to a global audience and create a sense of connection with attendees and viewers across the world,” Presutti said.