San Diego Tourism

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Tourism is a major industry owing to the city's climate, its beaches, and numerous tourist attractions such as Balboa Park, Belmont amusement park, San Diego Zoo, San Diego Zoo Safari Park, and SeaWorld San Diego. San Diego's Spanish and Mexican heritage is reflected in the many historic sites across the city, such as Mission San Diego de Alcala and Old Town San Diego State Historic Park. Annual events in San Diego include Comic-Con, the Farmers Insurance Open golf tournament, the San Diego Black Film Festival, and Street Scene Music Festival. Transient Occupancy Taxes (TOT) create funding for the City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture.

San Diego County hosted more than 30 million visitors in 2009, of whom approximately half stayed overnight and half were day visitors; collectively they spent an estimated $15 billion locally. The San Diego Convention Center hosted 68 out-of-town conventions and trade shows in 2009, attracting more than 600,000 visitors.

San Diego's cruise ship industry is the second largest in California; each cruise ship call injects an estimated $2 million (from the purchase of food, fuel, supplies, and maintenance services) into the local economy. Numerous cruise lines, including Celebrity, Crystal and Princess, operate out of San Diego. However, cruise ship business has been in steady decline since peaking in 2008, when the Port hosted over 250 ship calls and more than 900,000 passengers. By 2011 the number of ship calls had fallen to 103 (estimated). Holland America and Carnival Cruises had operated weekly cruises to the Mexican Riviera, but announced that they will no longer do so after April 2012, an economic loss to the region of more than $100 million. The decline is blamed on the slumping economy as well as fear of travel to Mexico due to well-publicized violence there. 

San Diego Culture

Many popular museums, such as the San Diego Museum of Art, the San Diego Natural History Museum, the San Diego Museum of Man, and the Museum of Photographic Arts are located in Balboa Park. The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (MCASD) is located in La Jolla and has a branch located at the Santa Fe Depot downtown. The Columbia district downtown is home to historic ship exhibits belonging to the San Diego Maritime Museum, headlined by the Star of India, as well as the unrelated San Diego Aircraft Carrier Museum featuring the USS Midway aircraft carrier.

The San Diego Symphony at Symphony Towers performs on a regular basis and is directed by Jahja Ling. The San Diego Opera at Civic Center Plaza, directed by Ian Campbell, was ranked by Opera America as one of the top 10 opera companies in the United States. Old Globe Theatre at Balboa Park produces about 15 plays and musicals annually. The La Jolla Playhouse at UCSD is directed by Christopher Ashley. Both the Old Globe Theatre and the La Jolla Playhouse have produced the world premieres of plays and musicals that have gone on to win Tony Awards or nominations on Broadway. The Joan B. Kroc Theatre at Kroc Center's Performing Arts Center is a 600-seat state-of-the-art theatre that hosts music, dance, and theatre performances. The San Diego Repertory Theatre at the Lyceum Theatres in Horton Plaza produces a variety of plays and musicals. Other professional theatrical production companies include the Lyric Opera San Diego and the Starlight Musical Theatre. Hundreds of movies and a dozen TV shows have been filmed in San Diego, a tradition going back as far as 1898. The Daily Beast voted San Diego 9th in its list of America's drunkest cities.

San Diego Sports

The National Football League's San Diego Chargers play in Qualcomm Stadium. Three NFL Super Bowl championships have been held there. Major League Baseball's San Diego Padres play in Petco Park. Parts of the World Baseball Classic were played there in 2006 and 2009.

NCAA Division I San Diego State Aztecs men's and women's basketball games are played at Viejas Arena at Aztec Bowl on the campus of San Diego State University. College football and soccer, basketball and volleyball are played at the Torero Stadium and the Jenny Craig Pavilion at USD.

The San Diego State Aztecs (MWC) and the University of San Diego Toreros (WCC) are NCAA Division I teams. The UCSD Tritons (CCAA) are members of NCAA Division II while the Point Loma Nazarene Sea Lions and San Diego Christian College (GSAC) are members of the NAIA.

Qualcomm stadium also houses the NCAA Division I San Diego State Aztecs, as well as local high school football championships, international soccer games, and supercross events. Two of college football's annual bowl games are also held there: the Holiday Bowl and the Poinsettia Bowl. Soccer, American football, and track and field are played in Balboa Stadium, the city's first stadium, constructed in 1914.

Rugby union is a developing sport in the city. The USA Sevens, a major rugby event, was held there from 2007 through 2009. San Diego is one of only 16 cities in the United States included in the Rugby Super League represented by Old Mission Beach Athletic Club RFC, the home club of USA Rugby's Captain Todd Clever who plays rugby professionally in Japan's Top League with Suntory Sungoliath. San Diego will participate in the Western American National Rugby League which starts in 2011.

The San Diego Surf of the American Basketball Association is located in the city. The annual Farmers Insurance Open golf tournament (formerly the Buick Invitational) on the PGA Tour occurs at the municipally owned Torrey Pines Golf Course. This course was also the site of the 2008 U.S. Open Golf Championship. The San Diego Yacht Club hosted the America's Cup yacht races three times during the period 1988 to 1995. The amateur beach sport Over-the-line was invented in San Diego, and the annual world Over-the-line championships are held at Mission Bay every year.

Feel free to Contact Me or visit my Buyers Page or Sellers Page if you have any questions about anything. If you would like information about Ascent please visit my About Ascent page. If you would like information about San Diego visit my About San Diego page, San Diego Education page or San Diego Neighborhoods page.