Napa Valley’s exquisite wine country welcomes more than 3 million people every year, and visitors are splashing out loads of cash for their experience.

On average tourists are spending $281 per day in the popular California wine region, just north of San Francisco, according to a new report.

Visit Napa Valley – the region’s tourism marketing group – released a 2023 economic impact study on Wednesday which concluded that visitors spend a total average of $7 million per day.

The report, which compiled approximately 1,700 surveys, found that 3.7 million people visited the luxurious wine region last year, which brought in more than $2.5 billion.

Wine country’s new study comes just one month after its tourism chief, Linsey Gallagher, was accused of fostering a ‘pervasive culture of fear’ and mismanaging funds.

This is the first economic report released by the organization since 2018, as research was halted during the pandemic. Typically, Visit Napa Valley posts one every two years.

The latest report also found that the average age of wine connoisseurs that come to Napa were 40. In 2018, the average visitor age was 46.

Of the 3.7million visitors that visited in 2023, 38 percent were overnight guests. 62 percent of people decided to pack the wine-filled experience into a day trip.

On average, day trippers reportedly spend $213 a day in Napa Valley, while those who stay overnight pay about $474, the study found.

About 1,000 people stayed in Napa Valley motels or hotels, while 199,000 crashed in private homes in the area, the study found.

The study found that about 79 percent of Napa Valley visitors spent their money on wine, 73 percent on dining, 61 percent on shopping and 11 percent on bars and nightlife.
75 percent of people were ‘inspired’ to visit wine country after friends and family gave them the recommendation, and 95 percent of tourists plan to come back, according to the data.

The organization also broke down exactly why people flock to Napa Valley, with 47 percent of visitors coming to enjoy a nice weekend getaway, while 22 percent to take a vacation.
Meanwhile, 10 percent of people host their weddings at the impressive vineyards, five percent visit for business, two percent come for corporate meetings and events, and 14 percent go for other reasons.

Besides the endless amount of people visiting the famed vineyards, the industry out there has produced an estimated 16,000 jobs, according to the report.

Local businesses raked in $107.5million in tax revenue last year – a 26 percent increase from 2018.
The tourism part of Napa Valley ‘remains the second largest employer’ in the county – after the wine industry itself.

In July, Gallagher, Napa Valley’s tourism chief was accused of making ‘disparaging and demeaning remarks’ to employees and misallocated public funds at Visit Napa Valley. Earlier this year she was cleared after a ‘neutral’ investigation.

She reportedly used phrases such as: ‘I’m the only reason you have this job in the first place,’ and ‘it’s not like you were groped or sexually assaulted.’

At the time, 10 anonymous staffers penned an anonymous letter seen by the SF Chronicle, claiming that the investigation was ‘gravely mishandled’ and that Gallagher singled them out for retribution after she was cleared.

Gallagher was appointed president and CEO of the tourist bureau in 2019, overseeing a $2.2 billion industry that brings nearly four million people a year to the Californian county.

In a 2022 interview she advised young women in her industry to ‘work hard, be nice, have courage to walk through the doors that open for you, find role models along the way.’

(Armani)