Carmel and Tourism
Carmel-by-the-Sea is an internationally destination that we all benefit, especially from the tax dollars those visits leave behind by staying at our hotels, eating at our restaurants, and enjoying galleries, theaters, shops, etc. Visitors also bring diversity and potential future residents as they like what they see enough to move in. We all welcome visitors and share the bounty of what nature brings, our history, our culture, our architecture, and everything our predecessors helped create. We (residents and visitors alike) are also blessed to enjoy the benefits that go beyond what is mentioned above. These include outstanding police/fire/ambulance services with staffing and equipment right in our one square mile town. Plus 2 libraries that enrich our citizenry. And there are many generous and active non-profit community organizations that invest in helping preserve our cherished Village and provide activities, services and connection opportunities for the people that live here (check out this CRA page for many of them, including CRA!). However, similar to most past decades, residents have growing concerns on tourism impacts to our Village. Word of mouth (especially social media now) has been key in sharing the bounty of this city we call home. Especially as residents, we also have a responsibility to protect and preserve what surrounds us - for future decades of residents and visitors to come. So what possible tourism management approaches will continue to welcome visitors, keep our businesses thriving and embrace the needs of our residents too? 1. Measure success by resident well-being, not visitor volume alone. Tourism numbers should be considered alongside the experiences of the people who live in the destination.
2. Connect tourism planning to the systems that keep communities livable. Track visitor pressure and coordinate tourism with housing, transportation, infrastructure, public spaces, and conservation.
3. Give residents and cultural custodians a meaningful voice. The people who sustain a place’s identity should help shape decisions about its tourism future.
4. Make the local benefits of tourism visible. Communities should be able to see how visitor spending supports local businesses, workers, cultural institutions and shared priorities.
5. Protect what makes the destination worth visiting. Growth should not erase the culture, character and natural environments that give a place its identity.
Tourism Town Hall - August 20th 4:30-6:30 in Carpenter Hall - Your Voice Matters! This Community input session is the first of two Town Halls, with another one planned for early October. Please join us August 20th and register HERE, we expect standing room only! During this first Town Hall your feedback will be gathered and shared real time on varied Village specific tourism topics - using your mobile devices. 
This effort is designed to be a transparent, community-led process that will assess the local tourism experience from multiple perspectives and develop practical, data-informed recommendations for the future. The goal is to identify opportunities for managing Carmel-by-the-Sea tourism while safeguarding the community’s unique character, economic vitality, resident quality of life, and visitor experience. Our project launched in July with the hiring of a professional team, to facilitate stakeholder engagement and analyze existing studies and data related to tourism, parking, visitor behavior, economic impacts, and community conditions. We are working as a community-based joint task force that includes representation from the Carmel Resident Association, Visit Carmel, and the Carmel Chamber of Commerce. This page continues to cover recent topics, public meetings, news and considerations to be explored in the months ahead. Over reactions? As you may have read in the press (as below) or on social media, our Village can receive media coverage with a big reach and frequency. For example, Carmel has received a lot of coverage on the upcoming Summer rollout of Standard Addresses for the first time in over 100 years. Over the Spring 2026 City Council has been working to increase the pace and dollars needed to accelerate completion of a backlog of infrastructure projects around town. With that in mind, they raised the possible tightening of dollars invested in marketing - thus the press coverage roster below. Considering this possible funding change requires greater understanding and the positives or negatives that come with any change. Working together with our Marketing Partners, Our Local Businesses, Our City Staff, our City Council and Our Residents - we need to better understand the facts, the various levers, the possibilities, the positives/negatives, the costs, the benefits of the approaches and optimization ahead. Amazing people call Carmel-by-the-Sea home and must be a part of planning this road ahead - that produce desired and positive outcomes. Recent Tourism Press Coverage HERE is a Yahoo and SanFrancisco Cronicle 7/25/26 article, "This picturesque California town is overwhelmed by tourists — but can't afford to lose them" or text pdf here. HERE is NYTimes 7/29/26 article " Are Influencers Barred From This Nantucket Shop? Marketing Partners of Carmel-by-the-Sea July 7, 2026 - City Council to decide funding "Discussion and Direction Regarding Funding for See Monterey Marketing Services; May 5 2026 - City Council - During our Village FY Budget cycle on this date each of these organizations presented and spoke about how they focus their marketing as below. Tourism Management Challenges...Are Not New When you read from the many articles and books written about our Village history, and many articles authored by CRA in the Voice and its prior publications - tourism has been a recurring topic for at least 50 years or more. (See CRA's Carmel Reading webpage HERE). Two recent issues of the CRA Voice - also touch on these tourism challenges HERE and HERE.
With Our Monterey Peninsula Neighbors...We Are Not Alone Our Village is not alone in welcoming Visitors while we protect and preserve what we have to enjoy. Bixby Bridge, Big Sur, Point Lobos in recent times have seen increased visitors from both far and near. Unfortunately this increase has created congestion, unwelcome behaviors and can create safety risks. And when Visitors stop in Carmel they commonly visit neighboring Coastal Cites and offerings including the Monterey Aquarium, 17 Mile Drive, golfing, wineries and more outdoor beach experiences - this list goes on. How we share while optimizing tourism will be considered and rolled out in phases in the months to come - for everyones benefit and enjoyment.
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