Results tagged “tourism”

"Surrounded by so many boob and beer joke tee shirts that you could almost miss it," this classic-comedy (albeit hateful) t-shirt is for sale right now at Wharf T Shirts (on Jefferson between Leavenworth and Jones) in Fisherman's Wharf. Charming, no? No.

Gay.com named the winners of their annual Travel Awards. To no one's surprise, San Francisco was named Favorite Domestic Destination. Woo hoo! Gavin, of course, was equally elated. Because this means more much-needed tourist dollars. "On behalf of the city and county of San Francisco, it is a great honor to be recognized as the 'Best Domestic Destination' in the US in the 2009 Gay.com Travel Awards," said Newsom. "I am proud to represent a city with so many historic firsts for the gay and lesbian community -- including the birth of the rainbow flag, home to the first openly gay men's chorus and the first LGBT chamber of commerce. We look forward to the readers of Gay.com creating their own 'only in San Francisco' experience." (Speaking of which, what's your own 'only in SF' experience, readers?) The winners (which includes the W winning Favorite Hotel Chain and London, England being named Favorite International Destination) were chosen by thousands of Gay.com's readers over the last two months.

Last year's ballot measure to change the Oceanside Wastewater Treatment Facility's name in honor of George W. Bush is undoubtedly partially responsible for the influx of tourists checking out the inner-workings of the San Francisco sewage system. Newsweek reports that offbeat (and free) destinations are increasing in popularity, as we're all becoming more budget-conscious. A commenter on Newsweek also credits Discovery Channel's "Dirty Jobs" for demonstrating that weird and nitty-gritty places can be fun. Our most memorable field trip in middle school was when our environmental science class visited the local waste facility in the mid-80s. We were so ahead of our time!

With the swine flu almost reaching pandemic levels, cruise ships that were scheduled to head down south to Mexico will instead dock at the Port of San Francisco, as well as Victoria, British Columbia, and Seattle. According to SF Chron, "there were nine ship calls scheduled in May before the flu kept the ships out of Mexico. Now 18 are scheduled" to make appearances on the waterfront. San Francisco, it seems, sees "50 to 60 cruise ship calls a year"; this year, however, we'll have 70. What does this mean? An extra $500,000 in city revenue. "It's excellent," squealed Port of San Francisco marketing director Michael Nerney. Also, in related mixed-message news, SF health officials would like you to stop overreacting to the pig sniffles, please.

            

Casting a spell at a Qantas A380 Press Event today, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom talked about Australians tourism, Summer Heights High, and Kylie Minogue. Or whatever. Needless to say, he looked smashing. As usual.

Before rolling out budget cuts later this week, Mayor Newsom is helping out the local economy by asking you to do all of your holiday shopping here in San Francisco. To tempt you to get off l'internet and into the stores, a new city-wide incentive program called Shop SF, Get More will encourage SF residents to "visit, shop, and stay" in San Francisco during December and January.

Oh, sure, you've seen all the coverage of Jan Gehl's plan to turn Fisherman's Wharf into something tolerable. But wouldn't you like to know more? The excellent SPUR is holding a forum TODAY about the city's plan to alleviate pedestrian-congestion by updating the neighborhood's 1950s-style freeway-inspired urban design: widening sidewalks, installing benches, and adding bike lanes, injunction be damned. After all, be honest: when's the last time you went to Fisherman's Wharf? Probably when you had out-of-town guests.

Yesterday we mentioned the delightful work trip/vacation San Francisco supervisor Bevan Dufty and city treasurer Jose Cisneros took to Australia for Sydney's Gay Mardi Gras. Trannyshack founder Heklina was there, too. And many readers fretted about whether or not city tax dollars went to pay for this trip down under -- an excursion, it should be mentioned, that will reportedly bring in much-needed tourist dollars to SF. Anyway, according to Dufty's office:

Over at the five-star Clift Hotel, home to the (in)famous Redwood Room, hotel employee Christian Rojas was arrested after he allegedly raped a hotel guest in her room. According to officials, the 30-year-old man used his keycard to enter the victim's hotel room, attack her, and then leave.

-In a poll, local residents say their biggest pet peeve is traffic. -San Francisco school board wants to go small.