California is moving ahead with a dramatic reopening of the economy this week as COVID-19 numbers remain low and more people get vaccinated.

In this week's "In Focus SoCal," host Tanya McRae sits down with Los Angeles City Councilman Paul Krekorian, chair of the Budget and Finance Committee, to talk about the economic recovery in Southern California and what we can expect in the next year.

"Tourism was devastated during COVID," he said. "At one point, our hotels were at lower than 20% occupancy, and we expect that they'll be back over 70% by this summer. And that's a huge driver of our local economy and jobs."

McRae also headed to the Mosaic Hotel Beverly Hills to see how the property has been faring over the last 15 months with implementing safety protocol. During the past year, the hotel has focused on special campaigns such as "Park and Play" and "Stay More, Save More."

According to the LA County Business Federation, many business leaders are optimistic about the next 12 months. 

The owner of the Elisa B. boutique in Pasadena told McRae, her store survived because she focused on her social media presence to engage customers and ramped up her website to accommodate online sales.

Doug Shupe, a spokesperson for the Auto Club of Southern California, also joined the conversation to discuss the top destinations this summer and the COVID-19 restrictions that are still in place.

"According to some tourism market research, in January of this year, about 55% of those surveyed said that they were ready to travel," he said. "But by May of this year, that number actually grew to 77%."

Send us your thoughts to InFocusSocal@charter.com and watch at 9 a.m. and noon Sundays.