Visit California's 8th California Luxury Forum was held Sept. 15-18 in Newport Beach. The organization partnered with Connections Luxury to curate this event, providing California industry partners the opportunity to meet and network with luxury advisors from around the globe who serve high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth clients. Buyers were hand-selected by Connections and pre-qualified by Visit California’s offices in Australia, Canada, China, France, India, Mexico, the Middle East, Spain, Switzerland, the UK, and the US. The Luxury Forum is known for its distinctive “anti-tradeshow” format, which centers on shared California experiences that highlight the state’s lifestyle. The event was hosted at the Resort at Pelican Hill, where both the opening session and a full day of appointments took place. Attendees also participated in a full day of meetings at Lido House and attended evening events at the Pendry Newport Beach and VEA Newport Beach. Experiences during the appointments included cottage tours, caviar tastings, beach walks, spa treatments, olive oil tasting, spice blending, Italian car viewings, pasta making, and Limoncello making. Two group experiences were also offered: Duffy boat rides to Balboa Bay Resort and a trip to Crystal Cove for a beach toast. View video and photo highlights After the official programming concluded, buyers visited Disneyland Resort on Sept. 19 for a full day exploring Disney’s Crown Collection. This curated collection of VIP experiences aims to enhance guests' visits to the Disneyland Resort. Highlights include 21 Royal, the "Land of Dreams" VIP Tour with personal guides, and accommodations in Disneyland Resort Hotel’s Signature or Club level suites. The day concluded with a special dinner at the Animation Academy in Disney’s California Adventure. Key statistics and program highlights 8th California Luxury Forum 39 suppliers: 16 DMOs, 20 accommodations, 1 attraction, 1 shopping center, 1 transportation company 40 luxury buyers 17 unique experiences at 4 hotels over 2.5 days 628 one-on-one appointments 5 group networking opportunities 1 VIP day at Disneyland Key insights and takeaways California may not be the first destination luxury buyers consider, but once exposed to the offerings, they are often pleasantly surprised and eager to explore new options for their clients. Luxury buyers seek specialized product information to provide tailored experiences for their clients and rely on the industry to facilitate these connections. Many buyers with ultra-high-end clients also act as full-service concierges, managing multiple aspects of their clients' lives and often staying in constant communication with them. There is ongoing demand for unique, customized experiences in luxury destinations, and buyers are looking to destinations to provide this information and facilitate these bookings. Luxury travelers value sustainability and want visible results from efforts in this area. Buyers are highly interested in learning more about destinations through both in-person experiences and online training tools. FAM tours continue to be critical in selling destinations through direct engagement with buyers. The luxury market will remain a key focus in Visit California’s trade strategy, as aspirational travelers are a growing segment and will play an increasingly important role alongside high-net-worth travelers. Visit California looks forward to continuing to offer this platform for its partners, with the 9th edition of the program planned for early 2026.

Destination stewardship is critically important to ensure California’s tourism economy remains an economic engine for all Californians. The tourism industry’s long-term viability depends on its ability to protect, preserve, and promote the traveler experience. Recognizing that residents play a vital role in sustaining this industry, California has made strides to understand how its people perceive the benefits of tourism. In 2022, Visit California conducted a proprietary study on resident sentiment revealing that a majority of residents recognized the benefits of tourism to both their local communities and the region as a whole. In 2023, Visit California partnered with Omnitrak on their national resident sentiment study to do a deep dive on California resident sentiment. This collaboration allows Visit California to share findings with the state’s tourism industry at no cost, helping the industry gauge resident perceptions of one of its most important economic generators. Additionally, because Omnitrak conducts the survey nationally, California can compare how our resident sentiment compares to all other U.S. states. The annual syndicated study “Resident Sentiment on Travel and Tourism” is now available through the Visit California industry website. Two annual waves of data (2022 and 2023) are available, and future waves of the study will be published in the first quarter of each year. Omnitrak has extensive experience in conducting resident sentiment research, having fielded studies in their home state of Hawaii since 2009 as well as conducting similar studies for numerous state and destination tourism boards. The sample for their national study reaches over 144,000 households annually with 17,000+ households in California. The robust sample size allows Visit California to report out on resident sentiment for the state’s 12 tourism regions, 27 counties, and 22 cities. The results from the 2023 annual study tell an important story. Sixty percent of California’s residents have a highly positive perception of the state’s travel and tourism industry. The perception is even more positive in the critical gateway regions of Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Francisco. And over half the state’s residents view the tourism economy as having a highly positive impact on local jobs and tax revenue. The study also explores residents’ perceptions of the impact of the travel and tourism industry on quality of life, funding for the community, marketing efforts, and overall benefits and costs. Visit California is eager to share this new research with the industry as it highlights the overall positive sentiment around the value of travel and tourism to the state, as well as points to opportunities where the industry can improve communication to further highlight the benefits of the industry to the state’s residents. With a consistent methodology and annual updates, this research will allow California communities to monitor resident sentiment over time.