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Tourism’s rising tide

By   /   Friday, January 7th, 2011  /   Comments Off on Tourism’s rising tide

After a brighter than expected 2010, tourism forecasters say 2011 will be a year for slow growth and recovery.

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[media-credit name=”Lora Wereb photo” align=”alignright” width=”300″][/media-credit]

Visitors to Stearns Wharf, one of Santa Barbara's top tourist attractions

After a brighter than expected 2010, the tri-county tourism industry starts 2011 with a little spring in its step.

Travel forecasters say 2011 will be a year for slow growth and recovery, after a rough few years. “Southern California will be at or about stabile levels of occupancy,” said Bruce Baltkin, a researcher with Colliers PKF Consulting USA, at a November 2010 tourism forecast for the county.

Santa Barbara County has “a really good mix of affordable and luxury properties,” Baltkin said, and its outlook is helped by the fact that no new properties are expected to come out of the pipeline this year.

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About the author

Managing Editor

Marlize van Romburgh covers banking, finance, agricultural and viticulture. She writes a weekly column on commercial real estate and a monthly column on the restaurant industry. Follow her at @marlizevr