San Francisco Travel CEO Resigns, Interim CEO Named

There’s been a major shakeup at one of the major U.S. DMCs.

Scott Beck, the San Francisco Travel Association (SFTA) president and CEO resigned this week for “personal reasons.” Beck had only joined SFTA in October 2023, having served four years as president and CEO at Destination Toronto and, before that, a long stint at Visit Salt Lake. According to his LinkedIn, Beck is already back in Utah.

Beck was quickly replaced by Anna Marie Presutti, the vice president at the city’s Hotel Nikko, who will serve as interim president and CEO until SFTA names a full-time replacement. Presutti had been serving as board chair and that role will now be taken over by John Anderson, the GM of the San Francisco Marriott Marquis Hotel.

“San Francisco Travel will continue to be the champion of hospitality for all those who want to visit, enjoy, dine, and work in one of the world’s best cities,” Presutti said. “Our board will conduct a search for a new CEO who embodies the spirt of San Francisco, is a skillful manager of a great team, and is experienced in attracting conventions, business travelers, and tourists to great cities.”

Beck had been tasked with helping both leisure travel and corporate travel in San Francisco recover from the pandemic and the subsequent fallout. In March, he told the San Francisco Business Journal that it could take until the end of the decade for the city’s convention business to return to 2019 levels.

The city’s leisure business, on the other hand, is closer to a recovery. More than 25.8 million people visited the destination in 2019, spending more than $10 billion. In 2023, the city hosted 23 million visitors and total visitor-related spending was $9.3 billion.