"Coming into 2020, business was booming for Emerald Farm Tours with no signs of slowing.The San Francisco-based company, which takes its guests to area cannabis businesses and cultural landmarks, experienced 200% month-over-month growth from September 2019 to February 2020 and was preparing for a 'hiring blitz' as tour bookings spiked to around five per week, according to Victor Pinho, the company’s co-founder and CEO.'And then it just stopped,' Pinho said.He and his business, of course, weren’t alone.The COVID-19 pandemic upended several industries, but perhaps none was more negatively impacted than tourism and subsets like cannabis tourism. Despite the economic damage suffered over the past nine months, Pinho and several others involved in the intersection of tourism and cannabis – a wide-spanning space that includes hospitality, entertainment and travel – are optimistic about the future.They find encouragement in the overall cannabis industry’s ability to withstand crises – evidenced by consistently rising REC sales throughout the pandemic – and point to the present moment as an ideal time to reshape and rebuild. Travel in the U.S. last year was believed to have generated $2.6T to the U.S. economy, though it is unclear what portion of that came from cannabis-related tourism. ..."Read the full article by Willis Jacobson at Weed Week.