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# Foreign travelers forsaking SM
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/foreign-travelers-forsaking-sm/
- Published: 2007-06-04T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-24T00:57:07.000Z
- Author: Kevin Herrera
- Tags: local, Promenade, #archive-import

*FROM TOURISM PAGE 1 Domestic visits up*

THIRD STREET PROMENADE For the first time since the Santa Monica Convention and Visitors Bureau began monitoring where tourists originate from, there were more guests from inside the U.S. than from any other country around the world.

The news has tourism experts slightly on edge as they closely monitor the next couple of months to determine if this is a fluke or a trend that needs to be addressed in the future.

“I think there is a little nudge of concern,” said Misti Kerns, president and CEO of the bureau. “This is the first time this has happened since 1983 when we first started keeping track of this and we are still researching why this is.”

Recent figures show that 44.3 percent of visitors came from outside the U.S., compared to 55.7 percent from domestic points of origin. Just over 13 percent were from California.

Kerns is almost certain that several factors are involved, including changes in arrival patterns at LAX, America’s plummeting popularity abroad and the high price of hotel rooms, the average being $263.81 a night, up 8.1 percent from the year before.

That said, people are still coming to Santa Monica in large numbers. The occupancy rate is hovering around 82.3 percent, meaning most of the available rooms are being filled, however, that has started to level off, meaning Santa Monica could have hit a ceiling.

June is the time when most visitors come to Santa Monica.

Out on the promenade, one of the main attractions in the city, tourists could be found milling about, browsing storefronts or examining restaurant menus looking for a place to eat.

There was a wide range of people, some from England and Germany, others from Texas and Oklahoma.

Cecile Muestra, a native of Sweden, was walking along the promenade with her family Thursday afternoon. The 49-year-old mother of two was in town to celebrate her 50th birthday. “I had a great time with my husband the last time we came, and now we’re here to show my children around,” said Muestra, who was making her fourth visit to Santa Monica since 1979.

The one thing Muestra was not happy about was the cost of her hotel room. She said the price was expensive, but she’s willing to pay because she gets to stay near the beach and downtown.

Tourism is crucial to the city’s economy, contributing millions of dollars each year in taxes. The Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT), which is levied on all hotel/motel room stays of less than 30 days, is expected to generate just over $34 million this coming fiscal year, or roughly 20 percent of local tax revenues.

The TOT has become the top source of tax revenue, just a cut above property taxes, $33.57 million, sales taxes, $33.7 million, and the Utility Users Tax, $31.9 million.

“This of course does not include the sales tax and other spending tourism generates,” Kerns added.

In a report to the City Council, the bureau said the average tourist visiting Santa Monica spends $168 a day, and that includes souvenirs, meals and transportation such as bike rentals or bus rides.

The change in the type of tourist is important because domestic tourists tend to spend less time in Santa Monica and spend less money too, Kerns said. Having a diversified base is also important in case of a recession, such as the one that followed the terrorist attacks of September 11\. “One thing we learned from 9/11 is how fast things can change,” Kerns said. “We were very lucky we had a diversified market, making us one of the first communities to recover after 9/11\. We didn’t suffer as much as other Westside destinations did and a big part of that is because we were already working with the U.K., Australia and New Zealand. They didn’t stop traveling, but the Japanese did. They went from being our number one market to now like 7th or 8th on the list.”

Kerns said the bureau’s budget is not even one percent of the collected TOT and needs to increase so that it can focus on other markets such as Ireland and Germany, where there is expected to be considerable growth in foreign tourism in the coming years.

“We must be strategic in our approach,” Kerns said, “and be working with emerging markets abroad.”

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 4, 2007.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/060407.pdf?ref=smdp.com)