Officials provide updates on Sacramento's tourism industry
(FOX40.COM) — Visit Sacramento hosted its annual State of Tourism event this morning. Tourism officials shared the latest updates on our region's travel and hospitality industry and unveiled an exciting new food event launching this year.
Visit Sacramento staff, congress members, airport officials from SMF, and city and county leaders gathered today to share the updates inside the Safe Credit Union Convention Center.
'Now is the moment. We can feel it. Things are happening, and we're going to take this moment and run away with it,' said Congresswoman Doris Matsui.
Sacramento's tourism industry made a strong comeback after the COVID-19 pandemic. It's now generating $4 billion annually.
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'We attract more than 15 million visitors a year. They spend millions of dollars into our economy, and it creates tens of thousands of jobs in Sacramento,' said Mike Testa, Visit Sacramento's President and CEO.
In 2024, local businesses brought in $148 million from visitor spending, while other tourism markets across California slumped. Testa says the Sacramento region's wide variety of events and attractions is keeping tourism strong.
'When one industry may be down, like conventions, sports picks it up, or music festivals pick it up.'
The local industry continues to grow, even after two significant events, X-Games and Golden Sky, were paused this year. Although Testa says both are expected to return, 'Certainly losing Golden Sky this year isn't a great thing.'
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'The good news is it's a pause. We expect it to be back in 2026,' said Testa. 'X Games is an event that we had hosted before. While we hate that it's postponed a year, it's still coming back.'
Filling the gap left by those events, Visit Sacramento announced a brand new addition: Terra Madre Americas.
'It's the largest food conference in Europe,' Testa explained. 'It attracts 300,000 people from 120 different countries in Torino, Italy. We are bringing that event to Sacramento.'
Ed Roehr, Co-Director of Slow Food Sacramento, helped bring the event here. He says Terra Madre will showcase our region's food scene to the world.
'Bringing out producers, makers, and farmers from around the states and America here. Offering interesting perspectives on food and food values. I think it's going to be fantastic,' Roehr said.
With other West Coast tourism cities struggling, Sacramento is moving forward thanks to new events and plenty of unique experiences.
'I think Sacramento is in a really good place,' Testa said.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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