The San Francisco Tourism Association, the official destination marketing organization for the city and county, has named Anna Marie Presutti as its president and CEO, the first female leader of the organization.
Presutti took over on an interim basis in May following the sudden resignation of Scott Beck. Resign. Baker succeeds Joe D’Alessandro, who held the position for 18 years.
Presuti said her goal is to bring large-scale events and conferences back to the city. “My first priority is to build on the momentum and get our meetings business back to a healthy level,” she said. “We will invest in marketing San Francisco’s great strengths, including its food, arts and culture, and work with other organizations like the Bay Area Host Committee to host more world-class events here.”
Baker told Skift in February that San Francisco’s reputation as a conference destination has struggled to fully recover since the pandemic, as business travel has slowly recovered and the rise of remote and hybrid work has hurt downtown vitality and foot traffic.
Last month, Presuti told the Wall Street Journal that “2024 is definitely going to be a tough year” and that the city’s convention business may not recover until 2028 or 2029.
signs of improvement
The city got some good news last week. On the third and final day of the Dreamforce conference, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff told KTVU-TV that he signed a deal to host the major conference in San Francisco for three years.
That’s not the only sign of improvement in the city. Its occupancy rate has improved compared with last year, in part due to its emergence as an AI technology hub. The city recently hosted an artificial intelligence conference organized by Databricks, and its hotel occupancy rate reached 79% between June 9 and 15, making it one of the largest hotel markets in the United States that week.
The city has been taking steps to address safety concerns downtown, which has deterred some tourists and tour operators. “You don’t see crime and open-air drug markets like you did a year ago,” San Francisco native Dylan David, founder of Dylan’s Tours, told Skift in June.
According to the San Francisco Tourism Bureau, the city will receive 23.1 million visitors in 2023, a 5.2% increase from 2022. Total visitor-related spending, including $494.6 million in meeting planner and exhibitor spending, increased 20% to $9.3 billion in 2023.
According to the San Francisco Tourism Association, tourism accounted for $9.3 billion in total visitor spending and nearly $610 million in tax revenue in 2023.
Presutti joins several other female CVB leaders
Presutti joins several other female CEOs leading the CVB, including Martha Sheridan, president and CEO of Meet Boston; Kristen Adamo, president and CEO of Providence Warwick CVB; Casandra Matej, president and CEO of Visit Orlando; and Julie, president and CEO of Visit Cincy. Calvert; and Tammy Canavan, President and CEO of Visit Seattle.
The San Diego Tourism Authority, also in California, is led by a woman — Julie Coker, who serves as president and CEO.
New York City Tourism + Convention Center also has a female interim CEO, Nancy Mammana, who previously served as the organization’s chief marketing officer.
