When Allan Graves and his team at Love Tours load visitors into the company’s hand-painted psychedelic Volkswagen “hippie bus” to drive them around San Francisco, they don’t just cruise past landmarks like Haight-Ashbury and the Painted Ladies.
Alongside the attractions and pretty vistas, Graves makes a point of taking guests through “the heart of the Tenderloin” so they see the city’s grittier corridors.
Except lately, the neighborhood’s struggles haven’t felt nearly as conspicuous. The streets are cleaner, and the number of “highly visible transient individuals” has declined, Graves said. A year ago, guests would remark on how the scenes unscrolling outside the bus didn’t fit the “doom loop” narrative they’d seen on TV. Now, he said, they’re struck by the general cleanliness and order — an indication, he believes, that San Francisco has shrugged off its role as national punching bag.
And word seems to be getting around. Booking revenue for his 13-year-old company is in recovery from its post-pandemic slump: “We’re in the higher thresholds, maybe even projecting toward 2019 numbers,” he said.
Talk to any local guide or tour company operator, and you’re likely to hear the same: After years in which the average traveler’s perception of San Francisco was that it was to be feared, if not outright avoided, the reality of plummeting crime rates and less clogged sidewalks is being noticed.
But you’ll also hear concern that the momentum is temporary. The Trump administration’s program of tariffs and visa cancellations, as well as a new ban on travelers from certain countries, is “making our friends feel like foes,” as Graves put it — and giving would-be visitors from abroad pause, even about coming to a deep-blue city.
“America is a brand, and until recently it was a top brand,” said Damien Blackshaw, founder of Real San Francisco Tours. “But that brand is just being ruined.”
His business was trending 200% ahead of 2024 before Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs took effect in early April, when sales suddenly slowed and haven’t bounced back. Blackshaw suspects this is due, at least in part, to international visitors eschewing the U.S. Negotiations with a school group from Canada about a private tour fizzled amid Trump’s talk of making their country the 51st state. California is expecting 20% fewer Canadian tourists this year as our neighbors to the north boycott the U.S.
“I haven’t had a Canadian on my tour in months,” said Ryan Curtis, founder of Roam Local. “They’re sticking by their guns — er, by their maple leaves.”
Canadians previously made up around 10% of his business, so he’s feeling their absence: “It’s literally affected my wallet.”
Less bipping, more Waymos
Jamie Bianchi leads ghost tours for The Haunt, which means it’s his job to be intimately familiar with San Francisco’s sordid history of grisly murderers and bloody shoot-outs. He’s well aware that the city’s violent crime rates have hit historic lows and continue to fall.
Since he started leading tours five years ago for another company, he’s felt the city get progressively safer, cleaner, and more vibrant. The vibe shift is palpable.
“The city’s doing a lot to try to get people back out,” he said, citing Downtown First Thursdays and Chinatown’s night markets, which he sometimes has to dodge while leading tours. A bad rap occasionally dogs San Francisco — he says he still gets “guests who are surprised, who expected things to seem worse” — but the majority of people he meets see the city “in a better light.”
There are intangible signals of an energy improvement, and then there are the literal signs. Chad Thompson, a tour guide with Vantigo, said he’s noticed a decrease in publicly posted notices about car break-ins (and the telltale piles of shattered glass in the gutters). “The bipping was crazy — I saw it every day,” he said of 2022 and 2023 in particular. “Now I haven’t seen it in months.”
Sharon Traeger, a guide who often leads tours for school and business groups, said the city has come a long way since 2022, when one group of business students from Madrid left feeling slightly traumatized.
“They were shocked and dismayed at the state of San Francisco,” she said. The visitors were stunned by the tent cities, rampant public fentanyl use, and insensate people lying on the streets who appeared to be “dangerous to themselves.”
During that nadir, Traeger felt “embarrassed” by the state of the city and worried about how she’d explain its issues to foreign guests. “But I’m happy to report that that’s not the case right now.”
These days, her tours are less likely to include information on SF’s spending on homelessness services and more likely to explain how to summon a Waymo or spot a Zoox. “I’m constantly having to reinvent my tour,” she said. “My method is always to stay positive.” She’s grateful that that’s been easier lately.
Political capital
Despite San Francisco’s glow-up (and Gov. Gavin Newsom’s attempt to distance California from the White House), national politics are affecting local tourism.
Greg McQuaid, who leads a tour of the city’s hidden stairways, suspects that overseas travel will be down this summer but hopes more Americans will choose to travel domestically, “so it all evens out.”
An increase in American tourists may come with its own challenges, though. Multiple guides mentioned that since Trump’s reelection, they’re especially hesitant to bring up politics on their tours, at risk of offending or provoking.
“I just always try to keep it neutral,” said Clyde Always, who leads a Surreal San Francisco walking tour. “I would hate to alienate somebody in the group, you know.”
Given the increased politicization of LGBTQ+ issues, it’s not always possible. His tour includes the Castro, where he regales guests with information on Harvey Milk, Gilbert Baker, and other queer activists. “Sometimes I get people that I can feel are uncomfortable,” he said.
Another guide described having a guest complain in a Yelp review about LGBTQ+ information on a tour. “It was ridiculous. That’s the history of San Francisco,” the guide scoffed. “You can’t separate it.”
For Blackshaw of Real SF, the biggest fear is that there won’t be an increase in domestic tourists to make up for the lack of international travellers — or that even if Americans do travel to San Francisco, they won’t be willing to shell out for a tour.
“People are hugely worried about recession — everybody’s talking about it,” he said. “Tours are the definition of a discretionary expense. I’m afraid that it’s going to be something that people are going to cut.”
Meanwhile, Graves keeps himself from panicking about the near future by reflecting on how he’s watched San Francisco bounce back in the past. The Love Tours leader has lived through several booms and busts in the 35 years since he was a kid riding the bus to the arcade at Fisherman’s Wharf, and he expects the city to keep evolving.
“Instead of crying that Nordstrom left,” Graves said, the city needs to reimagine new ways to fill its hollowed-out downtown retail corridors and attract young people, like encouraging the current AI gold rush.
He expects the “growing pains” to be temporary as the city figures out its next chapter. “San Francisco is going to keep changing. It’s always reinventing itself,” he said. “We, the tour companies, we’re the keepers of San Francisco’s stories.”