Estimated $64M loss as SF's 'poor street conditions,' high costs drive out Oracle's OpenWorld

Attendees walks outside Moscone Center during the annual Oracle OpenWorld Conference on October 2, 2011 in San Francisco. Attendees walks outside Moscone Center during the annual Oracle OpenWorld Conference on October 2, 2011 in San Francisco. Photo: Stephen Lam/Getty Images Photo: Stephen Lam/Getty Images Image 1 of / 9 Caption Close Estimated $64M loss as SF's 'poor street conditions,' high costs drive out Oracle's OpenWorld 1 / 9 Back to Gallery

Oracle's OpenWorld conference, which annually hosts 60,000 guests, will be leaving San Francisco after two decades, reportedly citing "poor street conditions" and high costs as the driving factors in the decision.

The news was first reported by CNBC, which acquired an email the San Francisco Travel Association sent to its members on Monday.

"Oracle stated that their attendee feedback was that San Francisco hotel rates are too high," read part of the email. "Poor street conditions was another reason why they made this difficult decision."

The SFTA said it anticipated OpenWorld would result in 62,000 hotel room nightly bookings in Oct. 2020, Oct. 2021 and Sept. 2022.

"The estimated economic impact of each of the above is $64,000,000, a huge loss for our city," said the email. This, of course, assumes that those rooms will not be filled by other bookings.

The five-day conference is one of the largest conventions hosted in the city each year. Participants are offered more than 2,000 sessions and demos related to the software company's offerings.

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OpenWorld is the highest-profile convention to leave San Francisco in recent years, but it's not the only one. In 2018, a medical association also pulled its convention.

"The doctors group told the San Francisco delegation that while they loved the city, postconvention surveys showed their members were afraid to walk amid the open drug use, threatening behavior and mental illness that are common on the streets," the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Last year, a UC Berkeley researcher found that some parts of San Francisco were "more unsanitary than many of the dwellings in impoverished, developing countries." A survey of 158 city blocks encountered more than 300 piles of feces and 100-plus improperly discarded needles.

OpenWorld is moving to Caesars Forum in Las Vegas for at least the next three years.

"Oracle is excited to offer a modern, state-of-the-art experience for attendees at Oracle OpenWorld and Code One 2020 in Las Vegas," an Oracle spokesperson told the San Francisco Business Times. "The city and its vast amenities are tailor-made for hosting large-scale events, and we look forward to bringing the industry’s most comprehensive technology and developer conferences to America’s premier hospitality destination."

Katie Dowd is an SFGATE Senior Digital Editor. Email: katie.dowd@sfgate.com | Twitter: @katiedowd