Waymo’s Impact on the Tourism Economy

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Last Updated on: 15th March 2025, 09:10 am

Waymo One is providing hundreds of thousands of fully autonomous trips each week in Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Austin, where residents are integrating Waymo One into their daily lives. At the same time, out of town visitors are opting to use Waymo One to experience even more of what these cities have to offer.

Today we’re sharing a report that examines how Waymo’s fully autonomous ride-hailing enhances the tourism industry in San Francisco, and helps generate tens of millions of dollars in additional economic activity for the region.

San Francisco: a case study for the fully autonomous future of tourism

San Francisco is one of the nation’s most visited cities, with tens of millions of tourists coming to the City by the Bay every year. Since launching commercially in August 2023, Waymo One has carried on the city’s legacy as a hub of innovation, and enhanced the region’s allure by providing a safe, comfortable, and futuristic transportation option. According to a recent survey of riders in San Francisco, over half feel Waymo One has made San Francisco a more exciting place.

“Waymo enhances San Francisco’s and Los Angeles’ reputations as exciting, innovative destinations with its cutting-edge, fully autonomous vehicles visible on each city’s streets,” said California Travel Association President and CEO Barb Newton. “Its safe, seamless, high-quality ride-hailing experience for both visitors and residents makes California an even better travel destination.”

In Waymo One’s first year of commercial operations, Waymo trips taken by visitors to San Francisco grew over 10% weekly on average, translating to nearly $40M in additional economic activity for the Bay Area.* Visitors eager to integrate this exciting new mode of transportation into their travel itineraries use Waymo One to get to the city’s business corridors, hotspots including the Ferry Building and the Presidio, and Union Square’s shopping and hotels, including Waymo partners like the Hyatt Regency Downtown Soma and Fairmont San Francisco that are crucial to the city’s tourism economy.

Waymo One also supports large events that are important drivers of revenue for San Francisco, including Bay to Breakers, the Oracle San Francisco Sail Grand Prix, and this year’s NBA All-Star Weekend.

The opportunity ahead

Tourism is vital to many cities and can play a crucial role in how they reinvent and revive their downtowns. Waymo One is playing an important role in supporting the tourism economies of the cities where we operate, by adding an exciting new way of getting around. We’re also seeing growing interest to do more with Waymo One among travelers. In just December 2024, there were approximately 13,000 searches for San Francisco International Airport in the Waymo One app.

We’re proud Waymo One plays a part in helping tourists access the best of what San Francisco, Phoenix, Los Angeles, and Austin have to offer. We’re looking forward to the future where Waymo One is connecting more riders — locals and tourists alike — to their destinations in more cities around the world. You can read more about Waymo’s impact here.

*Economic activity reflects tourist spending on Waymo trips and at destinations that a tourist would not have visited in the absence of Waymo, the total economic activity spurred across supply chains as businesses pay for goods and services to meet increased demand, and the income effects of the increase in economic activity.

News update from Waymo.