San Francisco Travel Teams Up With Luxury Hotel Group to Attract Meetings
Skift Take
San Francisco Travel is betting on Associated Luxury Hotels International’s deep planner relationships to help bring meetings and conventions back to the city. In a competitive market still shadowed by perception challenges, this will not be easy.
San Francisco is ramping up efforts to revive its meetings sector with a new strategic partnership between San Francisco Travel Association and Associated Luxury Hotels International (ALHI). The collaboration comes as the city confirms 32 events at Moscone Center for 2025 — up from 25 last year — signaling early traction in its long-term convention recovery.
The city’s newly elected mayor, Daniel Lurie, has placed a spotlight on business events as a cornerstone of San Francisco’s post-pandemic recovery. He’s taken a visible role, personally welcoming attendees at large gatherings such as the 8,000-person J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in January and the 30,000-attendee Game Developers Conference in March. The J.P. Morgan event is scheduled to return in 2026.
Leadership Behind New Strategy
This new partnership was sparked by new leadership at San Francisco Travel. Anna Marie Presutti, the first woman to lead the 115-year-old organization, was previously vice president and general manager of Hotel Nikko San Francisco, a property within the ALHI portfolio.
That existing relationship laid the groundwork for a formal partnership. ALHI, a global sales organization for independent luxury hotels, resorts, cruise lines, and DMCs, focuses heavily on meetings, incentives, and conventions, and frequently hosts executive-level exchanges and educational events for meeting professionals.
“We have an opportunity to promote and educate the meetings industry on the great work being done in San Francisco with new leadership and dedication on the destination experience,” said Michael Dominguez, president and CEO of ALHI.
Presutti said she had been working on the partnership since taking the helm last year. “It will help meeting professionals by giving them a clearer picture of what the city of San Francisco has to offer,” said Persutti. Salesforce’s Dreamforce conference, one of the city’s largest and most high-profile events, has also played a key role in San Francisco’s comeback narrative. Following public discussions last year about possibly moving the event, Salesforce has committed to keeping Dreamforce in the city hrough 2027.
