The conference, convention and tourism industry across the San Francisco Bay Area is facing headwinds.
The pandemic exacerbated the downturn as issues such as “poor street conditions” repel prospective businesses from hosting their in-person gatherings in the city.
Whereas last fall’s marquee conference, Dreamforce, was a boost for the local convention industry, the conference’s venue, the Moscone Center, is still struggling to hit booking targets for the coming years. Across the bay, construction for Oakland’s Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center hit an unsuspecting stall last year when a mummified body was discovered inside a wall.
Despite these obstacles, an unforeseen ally for the local convention and hotel industry is returning to the Bay Area for a spate of summer events that are expected to fill hotel room reservations while trickling down tourist dollars.
Jehovah’s Witnesses are converging for their first in-person conventions since the start of the pandemic and are expected to draw 22,500 visitors across 16 events through September. For decades, the religious group held its conventions at the Cow Palace but has since relocated to the Assembly Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Fremont.
“About six years ago we found out the Cow Palace was no longer meeting our needs,” Edgar Arias, a local spokesman for Jehovah’s Witnesses, told SFGATE. “Oracle Park and Chase Center charged a premium rate so we started using the Fremont Assembly Hall to hold our conventions.”
The first Jehovah’s Witnesses Conference at the Cow Palace was held in 1948.
Courtesy of Jehovah’s WitnessesThe prevailing theme across the Jehovah’s Witnesses conventions this year is to exercise patience — a virtue that figureheads in the local convention and tourism industry would likely also promote.
The latest forecast for the tourism industry is that the economy won’t come back fully until at least 2025, which has proven too much of a financial risk for some of the city’s largest hotel investors.
Earlier this month, Westfield and Brookfield Properties turned their California flagship mall property over to their lender, citing “challenging operating conditions” in downtown San Francisco. Meanwhile, a Virginia-based real estate investment trust defaulted on its loan for Hilton Union Square and Parc 55 in downtown San Francisco, in part, because it projected a “weaker than expected citywide convention calendar through 2027.”
Although Jehovah’s Witnesses conventions are held exclusively in Fremont (there are others in Fairfield), the events are expected to attract thousands to the region. Arias expects they’ll book San Francisco hotels while patronizing local tourist businesses.
“I can see them visiting the Embarcadero and Haight Street. Hayes Valley is another one. Downtown is a given, and Pier 39 is another big place. All the main sites,” he said.
Arias is a San Francisco local and recalls attending the Spanish-speaking conventions at the Cow Palace as a child. His parents worked in the local hospitality industry — his mother was a housekeeper for the Westin St. Francis for more than 20 years.
“I know the office vacancy downtown right now has been difficult for many people who make their living working at restaurants and setting up for conventions,” he said. “I grew up as a result of [my parent’s] hard work. I can’t imagine how difficult it is right now. When you get that taken away because of circumstances that are out of their control, it’s really tough.”