Tourism Soaring In The Desert

This is the  U.S. Travel Association’s 40th National Travel and Tourism Week.

Visit Greater Palm Springs is looking at some strong tourism numbers locally.

The 2022 Study of the Economic Impact of Visitors in the Coachella Valley, shows tourists are coming to the desert in record numbers, after the Covid-19 pandemic.

In 2019, before Covid hit, the  economic impact of travel and tourism  here in the desert was  $ 7.5 billion. 

Post Covid, in 2022, the tourism industry generated $8.7 billion in total economic impact to the Coachella Valley.

 Visitors increased their spending 26%  in 2022 while here in the desert, compared to 2021.

According to the latest numbers visitors to the desert paid  $812 million in state & local taxes, which technically is $812 million dollars desert residents did not have to pay.

Desert tourism supported more than 49-thousand jobs in 2022, or about 25% of the jobs in the desert.

To be clear, some of those jobs offer high salaries to people at the highest levels.

But not all the jobs in tourism are good-paying jobs.

Boy wearing sun glasses, floating on a raft in a swimming pool.

Photo by Alpha Media USA Portland OR