China will be sending two pandas to the San Diego Zoo, possibly as soon as this summer, five years after Beijing took tourism/sd-sdi-fi-zoo-pandas-20190325-story.html”>the beloved creatures out of San Diego.
Pandas had become part of the city’s image, most notably, a big plot point of the San Diego-based film “Anchorman.” Panda pictures often graced T-shirts and postcards promoting the region.
Pandas first took San Diego by storm in 1987 when two pandas stayed for 200 days. The pandas were a sensation, drawing more than 2 million visitors, the zoo said. The zoo has not provided new estimates of what pandas returning to America’s Finest City could mean for ticket sales.
While pandas will surely be a hit for the zoo, it is unclear how much of an impact their return would have on the wider tourism industry. Right now, the only U.S. zoo with pandas is in Atlanta.
Q: Will pandas returning to San Diego Zoo have a notable impact on the tourism industry?
Kelly Cunningham, San Diego Institute for Economic Research
NO: Even as iconic…
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