Thousands of San Francisco businesses were allowed to reopen some indoor operations Monday.
Gyms, hair salons and tattoo shops were among those allowed to reopen with social distancing requirements and restrictions on capacity. Hotels also opened their doors to tourists for the first time in nearly six months.
"It’s going to be a slow recovery, but our hotels now can have the same ability to be open for tourism that the rest of the state and most of the nation has as well," Kevin Carroll with Hotel Council of San Francisco said.
Carroll estimates the hotel industry's economic impact was about $12 billion before the pandemic, not only because of how many people the hotels employ but also because of the business they bring in for restaurants and other shops tourists visit.
Caroll said it will be a long road back to full recovery.
"It will be several years before our hotels can come back to where they would have been six months ago or a year ago," he said.
Some of the things that attract tourists, such as tour buses and open air boats, also received the OK to reopen with limited capacity.
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Karen Ciampo and Maria Anaya-Moctezuma from Phoenix were among some of the first tourists once again enjoying the city's attractions.
“I love architecture, and this city just has some phenomenal buildings," Ciampo said. "So just kind of doing an overview of the things that make this city so iconic."
