Bucking economic and political headwinds, Santa Barbara tourism held steady over the past 12 months as people visited the area to recharge, immerse themselves in unique experiences and bond with family and friends.
Taking the temperature of the day-trippers, regional trekkers and globetrotters headed here to eat, shop, sunbathe, relax — and work too — a new report on annual travel trends finds visitors at last count injected $1.4 billion into local businesses, despite a broader tourism slump across the United States.
“Demand is still strong,” said Kathy Janega-Dykes, President & CEO of Visit Santa Barbara. On Tuesday, she updated the Santa Barbara City Council on high-level metrics that painted a relatively positive picture. “The market remains stable.”
Visitors supported 8,122 jobs, driving nearly $508 million in wages and salaries, according to the nonprofit destination-marketing organization, which promotes the region.
Those same visitors generated more than $87 million in state and local tax revenue, according to the report.
Nationwide, estimates vary but experts agree travel to the U.S. has slowed among foreign travelers concerned about the country’s volatile political landscape — while other nations and regions have seen an increase.
International overnight visits to the U.S. fell 5.7 percent in 2025, according to Oxford Economics.
“Canada drove the biggest declines,” analysts at the firm wrote in a January report. “Visits from Canada dropped an estimated 25.7 percent as diplomatic tensions and border policies weighed on travel demand. In contrast, arrivals from Mexico exceeded expectations, rising an estimated 8.6 percent. For the first time in more than 25 years (outside pandemic years), Mexico became the largest source of international visitors to the U.S., surpassing Canada.
“Overseas visitation (excluding Canada and Mexico) declined 2.5 percent in 2025. More than half of the decline came from Western Europe, though performance varied by country.”
While tourism globally rose 4 percent in 2025 — including 3.8 percent across Europe, more than 6 percent across Asia and the Pacific, and nearly 8 percent across Africa — it dropped 1.4 percent in North America, according to the January issue of World Tourism Barometer, a United Nations publication.
Locally, the steady hand of Santa Barbara area tourism is reflected in part in key hotel data.
Hotel rooms on average were occupied 70 percent of the time — a 1 percent year-over-year increase, according to Visit Santa Barbara.
At $284, the average daily rate for a room fell 1 percent year over year.
Total hotel room revenue remained effectively unchanged at $158.4 million.
“This reflects a market that’s … resilient, even as it navigates broader economic uncertainty and evolving travel behavior,” Janega-Dykes said. “We’ve all been reading about all of the headwinds that our industry is facing, but yet our tourism economy continues to perform.”
Other California destinations appear similarly stable, according to the report.
In one snapshot measuring hotel occupancy rates during the month of February, the South Coast ranked 7th out of 17 statewide destinations. Santa Monica led at 79 percent occupied, with the South Coast at 69 percent and Sonoma County last at 54 percent. The Santa Ynez Valley ranked 13th at 62 percent.
In another snapshot, the vast majority of February domestic visitors to Santa Barbara hailed from California (70 percent) — followed by Arizona (2.7 percent), Oklahoma (2.4 percent) and Texas (2.3 percent).
In yet another February glance, downtown Santa Barbara ranked as the most popular point of interest (20.7 percent), followed by uptown (19.5 percent), Milpas Street (11.5 percent), the waterfront (9.5 percent), the State Street core (6.7 percent) and the Funk Zone (3.5 percent).
Looking ahead, Visit Santa Barbara is working to attract tourists during the FIFA World Cup 2026, part of which will take place in California, as well as the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
Two World Cup teams—Qatar and Austria—will hold training camps at Westmont College and UCSB, respectively. Visit Santa Barbara is marketing the area as an extended coastal stay to soccer fans traveling to games in Los Angeles and San Francisco, and also to non-fans looking to escape big World Cup crowds in those larger cities.
“Our focus is not simply on increasing visitation,” Janega-Dykes said. “It’s about shaping demand in a way that aligns with community priorities. It’s so critical that we are in alignment with what this community needs and what this community wants. This includes certainly leveraging sports tourism opportunities.”
Councilwoman Kristen Sneddon requested data showing which parts of Santa Barbara visitors find less accessible and inclusive and more difficult to navigate than others.
“Where are those challenge points?” she asked Janega-Dykes. “Where is someone who wants independent movement throughout unable to move throughout the city easily? Where are those places that we might not be fully aware of from a visitor’s perspective?”
Visit Santa Barbara anticipates obtaining this type of data in a new three-year strategic plan the organization is developing, Janega-Dykes responded. “I really like your idea of really understanding and learning about those pinch points.”
