The desert resort economy, explained
Fifteen million visitors, $7.8 billion in spending, and 52,352 jobs: what the official numbers say about the industry that runs the Coachella Valley.
The number everyone starts with is 15.0 million. That is how many visitors Greater Palm Springs drew in 2025, according to the annual economic impact study prepared by Tourism Economics for the region.
Those visitors spent $7.8 billion, up 4.5 percent from the year before, and their activity generated $9.6 billion in total economic impact. The same study counts 52,352 jobs supported across the region.
Where does the money go? Lodging takes the largest share: $2.4 billion, or 31 percent of visitor spending. Food and beverage is next at $2.1 billion, or 27 percent. Together, where visitors sleep and where they eat account for well over half of what they spend.
What economic impact actually means
The $9.6 billion figure is larger than the $7.8 billion in direct spending on purpose. The study uses an input-output model called IMPLAN to trace three layers: the direct spending at hotels, restaurants, and shops; the indirect spending by those businesses on their own suppliers; and the induced spending when the wages from both layers are spent again in the local economy.
The same accounting puts total personal income from visitor activity at $2.0 billion and state and local tax revenue at $943 million for 2025.
The geography matters
The report measures the Greater Palm Springs region, not the city of Palm Springs alone. That distinction matters because the spending spreads across the valley's resort cities.
The city-level editions show the concentration. In Palm Desert alone, visitors spent $1.7 billion in 2024, generating $2.1 billion in total economic impact and supporting 11,000 jobs, according to the companion city report prepared the same way.
How to read the next report
When the next annual study lands, look past the headline spending number to the comparisons that matter: whether visitor volume grew faster than spending, which would mean lower average spending per visitor; whether lodging kept its share, which measures the health of the hotel base; and whether the jobs number moved with the spending number, which is the human side of the ledger.
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