Tiburon sees post-pandemic rebound in business revenue

San Francisco residents Kei Ishii and Asahi Kato, strolling through Shoreline Park, said they were staying the night in town. It Ishii’s second visiting, the first in September for the Run Tiburon 5K and 10K races, and Kato’s first.

“It’s a small town, but it’s nice, quiet, beautiful,” Ishii said, with both later adding they want to visit again.

Their visits come as business in Tiburon appears to be thriving — the town’s combined, inflation-adjusted sales- and hotel-tax revenue for each of the past two fiscal years is back on track with prepandemic levels — though some town officials and business owners say it might not be what it seems.

For the 2023-2024 fiscal year, which ended June 30, the combined revenues netted Tiburon $1.82 million, the highest recorded in raw dollars and a whopping 65% increase over the inflation-adjusted low of fiscal 2020-2021, the first full year of the COVID-19 pandemic, when hotels were open only to essential travel and restaurants that were open had outdoor-only and physical-distancing policies. Adjusted to June 2024 dollars, the town brought in $1.1 million that fiscal year.

Natale Servino, who chairs the Tiburon Peninsula Chamber of Commerce and is a managing partner in the family-run Servino Trattoria and Caffe Acri eateries, said he was pleased to see numbers indicating a successful post-pandemic rebound — but he said he hears other local business operators are still facing challenges “like so many small towns and … brick-and-mortar businesses are facing.”

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