Monterey County’s tourism industry, nearly back to pre-pandemic levels, faces a bumpy road ahead.

It’s the start of Memorial Day weekend, the official beginning of the tourist season here in Monterey County. Pam Marino here, with the good news and the challenging news about local tourism, our number two industry that brings jobs and revenue.

In the good news department, visitor spending reached $3.1 billion last year, a 5.7-percent increase over 2023. That’s according to an economic impact study of the entire county by Dean Runyon Associates, the county’s tourism bureau, called See Monterey, announced on May 14. 

There is still a ways to go since the pandemic, however—in 2019, spending was tallied at $3.2 billion.

See Monterey officials put a rosy spin on the announcement, stating that despite not returning to pre-pandemic levels, “the year-over-year growth reflects a resilient and evolving tourism landscape,” citing ongoing guidance from the bureau’s Monterey County Tourism 2030 Roadmap, which focuses on responsible tourism.

The study also showed “record-breaking gains across key economic indicators,” that include an “all-time high” in hospitality employment—nearly 27,600 jobs—plus spending on accommodations surpassing $1 billion for the first time and tax receipts exceeding $310 million. Spending on dining increased by 7 percent.

What’s not mentioned in the announcement is the challenge the U.S. tourism industry now faces due to the impact of President Donald Trump’s tariffs and the overall chaos that’s been created in the country since his inauguration in January. 

Before Trump’s inauguration, estimates for growth in tourism revenue nationally and in California were a lot rosier. Since then the state’s tourism bureau, Visit California, and other tourism outlets have adjusted their projections, with the state’s tourism numbers essentially remaining flat in both overall visitation and spending. 

The number of international visitors to California is expected to dip by 9.2 percent this year, but See Monterey President/CEO Rob O’Keefe isn’t letting the projection slow down See Monterey’s efforts. 

“The game plan in a nutshell is to build on what we’ve been doing to bring international travelers back,” he tells me. “We don’t want to lose any ground.”

Last year See Monterey contracted with a firm in the United Kingdom to reach travelers there. There are plans on a similar outpost in either South Korea or Japan, based on projections by Visit California that there is room for growth in the Pacific Rim, O’Keefe says.

The bureau is also experimenting with new promotions, including a “buy two nights, get a third one free” event for hotel guests at 12 participating hotels. It runs through the end of June— the plan is to repeat the promotion in the fall.

What’s happening at the federal level is another bump in the road of many that Monterey County’s tourism industry has endured in recent years. Since 2020 it’s weathered a pandemic, major fires, winter storms, chunks of Highway 1 sliding into the ocean in Big Sur, flooding and even a historic battery plant fire. 

“Despite the challenges we’re seeing right now there continues to be great interest in visiting Monterey County,” O’Keefe says. 

As for this holiday weekend, O’Keefe says hotel reservations are looking “healthy,” and I expect we’ll see a lot of visitors to the region. The American Automobile Association is projecting that a record 45.1 million Americans will travel more than 50 miles from home this weekend. That’s over 1 million more than traveled at the same time last year.