San Francisco Travel has two new visitor information centers - Moscone Center and Chinatown

The San Francisco Travel Association opened two new Visitor Information Centers (VICs) in January 2019 – one inside the newly expanded Moscone Center and the other in Chinatown at 625 Kearny St.

The main Visitor Information Center inside the Moscone South building at 749 Howard St. near Fourth St. is an easy 12-minute walk from its previous home at Hallidie Plaza, near the Powell St. BART/Muni Station.

“This new location gives us a modern, high tech, state of the art facility with a very ‘San Francisco’ atmosphere in which to meet and serve our customers, giving them a better experience,” said Joe D’Alessandro, San Francisco Travel president and CEO.

“The location also provides easy accessibility for our convention guests while still being within walking distance of major hotels, restaurants, museums and transportation - including the upcoming Central Subway station at Folsom and Fourth streets,” he added.

In addition to visitor guides, maps and brochures, the Visitor Information Center at Moscone Center sells the San Francisco CityPASS, Muni 1-, 3- and 7-Day Passports, cable car tickets, the Explorer Pass, Muni maps and hop-on-hop-off bus tickets.

The multilingual staff, which speaks a total of 14 languages, also offers tips on public transit, trip planning, tours of the city, wine country, Yosemite and the region, as well as hotel and restaurant reservations. Regular hours at the Moscone Center VIC are 9 a.m.–5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m.–3 p.m. on weekends and holidays. The center may stay open until 5 p.m. on weekends when conventions are present.

The Chinatown location is expected to bring even more visitors to the iconic Chinatown neighborhood. It is located on the street level of newspaper Sing Tao’s San Francisco headquarters near historic Portsmouth Square.

Julia Ling is Sing Tao’s director of the Chinatown Visitor Information Center. She expressed her excitement at the opening: "To say we are overjoyed to see this initiative come to life would be an understatement. The San Francisco Chinatown Visitor Information Center is a much-needed resource providing visitors with historical insight into the oldest Chinatown in North America. I can’t wait to share our rich art, culture and good food with our visitors to Chinatown."

The Chinatown VIC is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. The center provides individual trip planning assistance and information, maps, guides and public transit tips. Visitors can purchase tickets for Big Bus Tours and a variety of attractions.

San Francisco Travel also operates a Visitor Information Center at Macy’s Union Square and is a partner at the California Welcome Center at PIER 39. San Francisco Travel assists more than 600,000 visitors per year between the three locations.