City officials see steady business, tourism and film numbers in 2025 economic indicators report

Economic development staff presented a data‑heavy 2025 Economic Indicators report to the City Council on March 10 that Mayor Dr. Sanchez Palacios and councilmembers characterized as a timely baseline for budget planning and targeted investments.

Meredith Hart, economic development manager, introduced the presentation and highlighted new staff and data tools. Caitlin Garcia, data analyst, reported business‑license growth (about 6,000 commercial businesses, a 7% increase from 2024), low industrial vacancy (2.5%–3.5%), and a labor force near 58,000 with an annual unemployment rate of 4.3% in 2025. Garcia said health care and social assistance was among the fastest‑growing sectors (adding roughly 1,400 jobs in 2025) and noted limitations in some datasets (October employment data missing due to state data gaps).

Carrie Glenn presented tourism and lodging metrics, reporting roughly 1.24 million regional visitor trips and about 456,000 long‑distance domestic tourists in 2025, with average stays near three nights and dining the largest spending category. Glenn said occupancy peaked at 79% in Q3 and that Ventura underperformed some peers on average daily rate and revenue per available room, contributing to an estimated overnight ‘leakage’ of about 16.2% (roughly 252,000 lost room nights).

Staff emphasized visitor‑attraction strategies and inventory diversification to capture higher‑spend overnight travelers. The presentation also noted film permitting activity in 2025 (13 permits, ~18 film days) and an estimated $12.1 million local economic impact from on‑location filming for the year.

Councilmembers asked for technical clarifications and next steps: staff said they will further disaggregate business‑license data (separating lessors and multi‑license companies), provide clearer bill and position summaries for the legislative consultant work, and develop park and facilities punch lists for use in the budget workshop. Several councilmembers said the tourism and parks statistics should inform budget priorities, especially maintenance and activation for high‑traffic parks and waterfront sites.

Councilmember Schumacher asked for a breakdown of the health‑care jobs category and whether childcare counted in that sector; staff said childcare spaces created this year (218 net new slots) reflect progress but are not captured as top‑growing industry entries. Staff committed to follow‑up data on Ventura‑resident workers versus jobs located in the city.

What’s next: Staff said the economic indicators will inform forthcoming budget discussions and that they will return with more granular business‑license breakdowns, a parks maintenance needs list for budget consideration and reports on strategies to reduce overnight leakage and strengthen hotel pricing power.