Listen: Mike Testa, President and CEO of Visit Sacramento, is one 134 tourism officials who signed a letter to Gov. Newsom.asking for state guidelines for openinng
Lack of Guidelines is Preventing California from Competing with Other States for Business in 2022 and Beyond
Frustrated officials and union leaders representing California’s business travel, events and conventions industry are calling on Governor Gavin Newsom to immediately issue statewide guidelines clarifying under what conditions business meetings, events and conventions in California can resume someday.
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In a letter to Governor Newsom released today signed by 134 tourism officials and labor groups, advocates said California is losing business and jobs to other states not just today but in 2022 and beyond because of the uncertainty caused by a lack of guidelines.
They called on Governor Newsom to focus his attention immediately on this sector of the economy which accounted for $66.1 billion in direct spending and 457,000 jobs in 2019. For every month California delays opening for business meeting and events, the state is losing $4.1 billion in economic activity. This data comes from two studies from Oxford Economics released in October 2020.
In the letter, tourism and labor officials say that the governor’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy makes no mention of business meetings, events and conventions and no guidelines for safe future re-openings have been issued or even discussed by the Newsom administration. Potential clients looking to book events in California see this as a signal that California is closed indefinitely.