[CBS SF] Tourists are turning away from the City by the Bay, while a huge medical convention has cancelled plans to meet in San Francisco, saying its members don't feel safe on the streets.Locals may feel comfortable, but visitors are often shocked when the reality of San Francisco's streets is a far cry from its postcard image.
Tourists once took home memories of famed cable cars. These days, too often it is of the image of someone begging, or dancing in circles, or just wandering around the streets intoxicated or mentally ill.
"You can smell it," says one tourist.
"I come from a third world county and it is not as bad as this," says another.
Now it's seriously affecting the city's biggest business: tourism.
"They feel their safety is as risk because they are seeing so many people with issues," says Kevin Carroll of the San Francisco Hotel Council.
"They see people laying on the streets ‐ petty crimes going on in the streets," says Joe D] Alessandro with Travel SF.
Tourism rakes in $9 billion per year in San Francisco, so officials have been reluctant to go public with the problem. In part, it is because it makes the city look bad and that's bad for business.
"Restaurants, taxis, people spend more money outside hotels than inside and for that reason it is something we should all be concerned about," says Carroll.
A major medical association has pulled its $40 million convention out of San Francisco over the state of the streets.