MILE MARKERS ON THE ROAD TO DETROIT: Longtime Bay Area tech conference is leaving San Francisco after a 50-year run.

One of the technology industry’s longest-running conferences is leaving San Francisco for Phoenix, a setback for a city that has promoted the return of conventions and visitors as evidence of its downtown recovery.

Semicon West, a major gathering for the global semiconductor industry, will make Phoenix its long-term home beginning in 2027, the trade association behind the event announced Thursday.

The conference will hold its final scheduled San Francisco edition on Oct. 13-15 at Moscone Center before moving to the Phoenix Convention Center for an event next spring. Conferences are also scheduled in Phoenix in 2028 and 2029.

The decision reverses an earlier plan to rotate the conference between the two cities and ends Semicon West’s more than 50-year association with the Bay Area.

Its departure comes as San Francisco seeks to rebuild a convention and tourism industry battered by the pandemic, remote work and the prolonged decline of its downtown business district.

Gooder and harder, San Fran.