- Officials anticipate millions will visit California for the 2028 Summer Olympics and are working on marketing plans for potential tourists.
- Tourism slipped this year in California, with international travel down because of financial and political concerns.
Los Angeles city and county officials working on the 2028 Summer Olympics discussed details about tourism, their hopes for the economic benefits of the mega-event and lessons learned from the recent Paris Games at the first state Senate committee hearing Thursday for the massive organizing effort.
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But largely absent from the discussion was how the massive federal immigration crackdown in L.A. and the international attention it is drawing could affect the event — and the perceptions of potential visitors.
At the three-hour hearing in Sacramento, Ryan Becker, a senior vice president at the tourism group Visit California, described the challenges to attract visitors to the state for the Olympics — although the scenario may change in three years.
At the moment, he said, a strong U.S. dollar makes it much more expensive for international travelers to come to California, while there are concerns about safety and access into the United States.
“Some headlines about border detainment and aggressive enforcement action are certainly heightening concern and exacerbating some longer-standing issues we’ve had at the federal level,” he said, referencing concerns about long visa wait times for would-be U.S. visitors.
Overall, international travel is expected to be down more than 9% in California this year, the first overall tourist decline since 2020, Becker said.
