A new report suggests that Southern California’s tourism numbers have seen a notable drop in 2025, something that could be attributed to a number of factors, such as wildfire recovery and political turmoil.
The report, shared by Visit California, shows a nearly 8% decrease in August compared to the same month last year. The state welcomed 695,654 people by air travel, approximately 170,000 fewer people than the numbers shown in 2024’s report.
Navid Sapir, the vice president of Star Line Tours, says that they’ve lost almost 10% of their typical customers since the start of the year.
“Los Angeles hasn’t been the most welcoming city in the last year,” Sapir said. “Whether it had to deal with the fires or the political unrest.”
The report also shows that visitors from Canada have dropped by nearly 38% compared to the same time in 2024. Earlier this year, California Gov. Gavin Newsom directed a tourism campaign at the country, encouraging them to continue visiting the Golden State.
One Toronto family visiting Hollywood on Monday said that nothing was going to stop them from making their trip.
“We’ve had this planned since last year, before all this ruckus started,” said Charlie Luz. “Yeah, it’s a little scary at first, but I’m glad we’re here.”
Visit California projects that 2025 will see a 9% decline in international tourism in 2025. They attribute that annual decline to “weakening consumer sentiment, limited airlift from key global markets and a strong U.S. dollar that makes travel more expensive for visitors from other countries.”
Sapir said that despite the numbers, his company is determined to find a way to surive the downturn.
“Luckily, we are in Hollywood. So, there’s a lot of different avenues we could venture into in tourism, particularly with the entertainment realm and all the excitement going on with that,” he said. “There’s always a way to adjust, but it’s going to be difficult.”
International markets that saw a year-over-year growth from 2025 included Mexico, Italy and the United Kingdom. Japan saw the largest increase in tourists from 2024, with data showing a 20% spike that might be directly attributable to Japanese phenomenon and Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani.
