North Bay tourism spending $5.3B in 2016, up 4.5%

Led by a huge jump in Marin County, traveler spending last year rose 4.5 percent across the six North Bay counties, per new state figures.

Tourists spent $5.32 billion in Sonoma, Napa, Marin, Solano, Mendocino and Lake counties, up from $5.09 billion in 2015, according to the annual economic-impact report released May 4 by Visit California, the state's official tourism booster.

MARIN: +19.6%

Visitor spending in Marin County saw a 19.6 percent increase in 2016 to $823.2 million, compared with $807.3 million in 2015.

Local tax revenue collected was $37 million, and 7,190 were employed in the tourism industry, a 2.6 percent increase over 2015.

SONOMA: +5.7%

Travel spending in Sonoma County was $1.93 billion for 2016, growing by 5.7 percent from 2015. [See the story 'Sonoma Co. tourists spend almost $2B.']

NAPA: +6.3%

Excursions to Napa Valley generated $1.35 billion last year, up 6.3 percent from $1.27 billion in 2015.

That spending figure is considerably smaller than what was in a report released May 3 by Visit Napa Valley, the county's official tourism organization. Its economic-impact report estimated $1.92 billion in visitor spending in 2016, a 17.5 percent increase since the last survey was done in 2014. [See the story 'Napa tourists spend nearly $2B.']

SOLANO: +0.4%

Total direct travel spending in Solano County was $663.4 million, up 0.4 percent from $660.5 million in 2015, with $18 million in local tax revenue generated.

MENDOCINO: +3.1%

Mendocino County travel revenue was $386.1 million in 2016, up 3.1 percent from $374.4 million in 2015, with $16.4 million generated in local tax revenue.

LAKE: +1.4%

Total direct travel spending in Lake County was $166.9 million in 2016, up 1.4 percent from $164.6 million, with $3.7 million in local tax revenue.