CA Is 10th Most Hurt By The European Travel Ban: Report

CALIFORNIA — In pre-pandemic times, California pulled in some $145 billion per year from tourists visiting the state, state officials said this week. During the summer, the state normally receives a large influx of tourists from across Europe.

But due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, residents of England, Ireland and the European Schengen area are still barred from entering the country. California ranked as 10th most hurt by this travel ban, according to a recent report from WalletHub.

"This sector, travel and tourism, was hardest hit. We all know that this was 10 times the size of 9/11," said Caroline Beteta, president and CEO of Visit California. "More than 55 percent of spending evaporated overnight."

WalletHub calculated which states would suffer the most in economic losses by analyzing the number of inbound tourists to each state along with total spending. Those numbers were then compared to each state's gross domestic product.

Nevada suffered the most from the European travel ban, WalletHub reported.

See the full list of heavily impacted states here.

While the European Union is set to lift travel bans for U.S. citizens as soon as this week, trans-Atlantic travel will not fully reopen until the U.S. lifts its current ban, Bloomberg reported.

"States will need to account for billions of dollars in economic losses as a result," WalletHub said in a statement.

Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed $95 million this week to aid California's beleaguered tourism industry, which is likely to suffer this summer from the ongoing European travel ban.

On Monday, Newsom urged Californians to travel within the state while dangling yet another carrot to entice Californians to get vaccinated.

On July 1, another vaccine incentive drawing will be held to select six dream vacation packages for the following locations: San Francisco, Anaheim, Los Angeles, Palm Springs and San Diego.

"We're still looking at four more years until we get back to those 2019 numbers," Beteta said of the losses the state's tourism industry faced. "One of the key issues for us to get California back on track and shorten this recovery curve is to encourage Californians to travel in California — It's like a modern-day act of patriotism."