Comic-Con will be in San Diego through 2016

Looks like the annual trek to San Diego will continue for Comic-Con International attendees -- at least through 2016. San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders announced Monday (Oct. 29) that Comic-Con organizers have extended their contract by a year and will continue to use the city's convention center for at least four more conventions.

Each year, San Diego's Gaslamp Quarter is transformed "into a kind of high-tech 'Twilight Zone,' with some of the best people-watching you'll ever see," Sanders says at a press conference Monday.  

Both Los Angeles and Anaheim made pitches in 2010 to move the annual festivities to their much-larger convention centers. And with good reason: Just from the 2012 convention alone, more than 300,000 Comic-Con attendees put $68 million into San Diego's pocket.  

Now the city has an extra year to work on its convention center expansion project. According to the Los Angeles Times, city officials have approved a $520-million expansion to keep large conventions in San Diego. But controversial financing has landed the plan in court, as it allowed local hoteliers -- not voters -- to decide to increase the room tax to fund the expansion. Per the plan, the hoteliers get a piece of the increased revenue for promotional purposes.

Comic-Con 2013 is set for July 18-21.