While California tourism slides, San Diego hopes to reduce the trend

From Deborah BrennanCalmness

This story was originally published by CalmattersS Register about their ballots.

On the last day of summer, the new Terminal 1 at the San Diego International Airport opened with an ethereal, white gathering, local dining establishments and new flight routes.

Passengers arriving at the first flights of the Southwest airline on Monday, September 22nd, unfolded to applaud through bubble arches above the gates.

“It was fun to cheer them up,” said San Diego Cabrera Regional Airport chairman the next day. “They were very confused when it happened.”

This opening date – Fall Equinox – was fixed years earlier when the airport employees set a strict construction schedule to launch the new terminal before the end of summer. Now they rely on a windy, new $ 3.8 billion facility to attract visitors against state tourism.

“We have the right airy space, with a lot of light that comes in and our goal was to reflect the San Diego community, and I think we did a really good job on this,” said Kim Becker CEO at a ribbon cutting ceremony last week.

California has given up on failure this year, as Trump administration policies on tariffs, immigration and sexual identificationY you have cooled some foreign trips and international currency courses have made you more expensive to visit the United States

In May, Visit CaliforniaNon -profit marketing agency forecasts a decrease of 1% of visits to the country, in the first decline of the year after the pandemic. San Diego tourism experts similarly predicted this The visit would be leveled This year, as trade wars and fluctuations in the market make people withdrawn to travel costs.

But the employees of the San Diego Airport are hoping to withstand this decline with a welcoming facility and new domestic and international flights.

“The mix somehow helped us a little in the sense that where it is submerged in one place, it has increased elsewhere,” Cabrera told Calmatters.

Economic winds

It is a difficult time to open a new airport facility. California tourism has bounced from the pandemic until 2024, but this year the industry is facing a perfect storm of economic and political cataclysms, which leaves to fly in what industry analysts call “winds” or obstacles to business growth.

Much of this is the change of heart among Canadian travelers.

“We see a 40% reduction in Canada to the United States for the first half of the year” among leisure tourists Amra Durakovic, a spokesman for the Canada Travel Travel Group in Canada.

Business trips to the United States have remained stable, she said. But many Canadians have switched their personal journey to Europe, the Caribbean and South America.

They quote steep US tariffs, aggressive border checks and threats to annexation of President Donald Trump as a reasons to stay away. The US Canadian reservations have fallen sharply in February after the first round of tariffs and have remained consistent ever since, Durakovic said. Pocket book problems are also played.

“We have a weak dollar,” she said. “I really think this is a massive factor that dictates where the Canadians are traveling. Everything in the US is getting more and more expensive, the costs are increasing. So when you add that you are getting a huge shock on a trip to the US together”

Canadian air trip to California has slipped nearly 38% between August 2024 and 2025, according to data from Visit CaliforniaS This prompted Governor Gavin Newm to carry out a marketing campaign to return these visitors with promises of warmth and welcome to the golden state.

“Of course, you know who is trying to get things back in DC, but don’t let this ruin your beach plans,” said the Newsom office.

Canadians are not the only tourists who take a pass. Visits from Japan dropped by 20% and from Australia by nearly 15%. 2025 forecasts predict a drop of 9.2% in international trips to California.

Los Angeles International Airport scored a 2.4 % drop in passengers between June 2024 and 2025, after the catastrophic fires in January and Immigration raids in JuneS The San Diego International Airport marked a less .6% in this period, with about 25 million passengers a year.

San Diego broke out the trend of foreign trips

While foreign airplanes are decreasing throughout California, San Diego International Airport shows the opposite trend. In the last year, it has increased an increase of 5.5 percent in global passengers, with the addition of more international flights.

In May, the airport launched direct flights to Amsterdam through KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, and in June it introduced Copa Airlines, with a flight to Panama, which opens South America to the passengers on the west coast. Last year, she struck her continuous flights to London from once to twice a day.

Plus, the strong dollar means that more travelers in San Diego are flying destinations like Europe and Canada, offsetting losses from incoming international flights, said Hampton Brown, Vice President of Airport Revenue.

“We are currently noticed that a large part of the international services we have are actually wearing people we go abroad, not foreigners coming here,” he said.

The $ 3.8 billion terminal project is funded mainly through airport bonds, and the debt of bonds will be paid through revenue from airline, parking and discounts and other fees. Another $ 300 million has come from the Federal Infrastructure Act from the Biden era and the airport cash.

The airport body is expecting the new terminal and more up -to -date improvements to generate $ 7.4 billion sales and $ 127 million local tax revenue between 2010 and 2029.

A unique quality of light

The new Terminal 1 replaces the old facility, which was built in 1967 to accommodate 2.5 million passengers a year, but are pressured to 12 million people last year, Cabrera said.

The first thing the visitors driving at the airport will see is a 21-foot jellyfish of fusia by an artist Matthew MatsotaS The kinetic sculpture of “bigger than life” presents the Pacific species of Chrysaora Coloras and serves as a reminder of the changing climate, the callus said.

Inside, the new competition offers open space and fine features designed to relieve the heads of air trips. The visited wooden ceiling tiles above the checkpoint mimic water on the coastline, “To create a sense of calm, because going through security can be stressful,” says Amiel Porta, director of Airside and Terminal Operations.

The artist James Carpenter created an 800-foot period from floor to ceiling, called “glowing wave”, with curved, textured glass, allowing the sunlight to enter, while reducing heat and glare.

The installation captures the “unique quality of San Diego’s light” to create “this giant lantern that is illuminated by the sun during the day and by architectural lighting at night,” says Anthony Hedat, project design manager at the San Diego Regional Airport.

Local dining establishments include Taco booth, Mediterranean style Luna Grill, Better Buzz Coffee and Cutwater Spirits. Skateboarder Tony Hawk and San Diego Claude chef have cooperated to serve a cross -border kitchen in a roof -made food stand. In another nod, practically throughout the San Diego, there is an outdoor dining area.

When the last phase of the new terminal was completed in 2028, there will be 30 gates, compared to 20 in the old facility.

“It’s excellent,” said Manuel Pagador, who flew to Denver in Terminal 1 last week. “It’s twice as big, very clean.”

But he found that the crunchy white interior was great, comparing it to Anchorage International Airport, with his tribal artifacts and grizzly bears. Pagador has suggested that art works representing surfs or California poppies be added.

Steve Pons took off from Auckland to San Diego through Old Terminal 1 and returned home last week, “which was much more happy, more simple, with better food and better places,” he said.

For passengers in San Diego, who have gripped their teeth through construction traffic and crowded terminal over the last few years, there is already a payment.

“This is one of those experiences you don’t really get very often,” said the ceremony at the ribbon cutting ceremony. “Everyone at the airport is happy.”

This article was Originally Published on CalMatters and was reissued under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Noderivatives License.