This year has seen more visitors coming to work and play in Snohomish County, generating more dollars for local hotels and attractions.
The trend has heightened tourism officials’ interest in luring more people, especially those from other countries.
Through the first nine months of 2006, 71 percent of the county’s hotel and motel rooms were regularly occupied, according to Smith Travel Research Inc. Only King County, with 73 percent occupancy, had a better rate statewide.
More dramatically, the average rate paid for a hotel room in Snohomish County rose to $77.72 a night in this year’s first nine months, up more than 10 percent from last year, Smith Travel Research reported.
“Talking with hotels about what’s continued their success this year, they say the main factor is the overall economy is stronger,” said Amy Spain, executive director of the Snohomish County Tourism Bureau. Having one of the best countywide economies in the state means more business and leisure travelers passing through, she explained.
That’s the case at the Best Western Navigator Inn &Suites along Evergreen Way in Everett, said Shaiza Damji, managing director of the 360 Hotel Group, which owns the inn.
“We are pleased to see the improvement in the overall business climate,” Damji said.
Spain pointed out that occupancy and room rate statistics are up even though there are more rooms to fill this year. The Holiday Inn in downtown Everett and the Hilton Garden Inn at Paine Field both opened last year, adding about 350 hotel rooms to the county.
The only major inn to close in the county in the past year was the 164-room Quality Inn on 128th Street SE in south Everett. New development is planned for that site.
That means the room supply is up by 5.6 percent compared with last year, according to Smith Travel Research, so the real increase in hotel and motel stays compared with last year is actually close to 7 percent.
While the trend may flatten somewhat, there’s no indication that hotel business will fall next year, Spain said.
“They’re not expecting huge growth like we had the last two years, but they hope to be at least as strong as this year,” she said.
The growing number of hotel stays here hasn’t escaped others’ notice. A new Holiday Inn Express is under construction in Marysville, and the Tulalip Tribes plan to open a 12-story, 363-room hotel and conference center in 2008. A new hotel also is planned next to the Lynnwood Convention Center.
While tourism obviously is good for hotels, it has a ripple effect through others’ businesses and the overall economy. Direct travel spending in the county totaled more than $746 million last year, according to statistics compiled for the state tourism office. That was up from $673 million in 2004.
In fact, tourism spending in the county has more than doubled since the early 1990s, according to the agency’s statistics. Spending at local hotels and motels has nearly tripled.
Snohomish County’s single-largest tourism attraction has long been the Boeing factory tour, now paired with the Future of Flight Aviation Center. The aerospace museum, barely a year old, and the Boeing tour brought in 132,545 visitors from January through October.
That was up from roughly 81,000 people who took the Boeing tour last year, though it’s still well short of the facility’s ambitious goal to have 230,000 visitors in 2006.
“We feel like we had a really good year,” said Sandy Ward, the Future of Flight’s marketing director. She added that revenue from meetings held at the facility is running more than 100 percent ahead of projections for this year.
Visitors to the aviation attraction have had a particularly international flavor, with large numbers from Japan, Britain and Germany, Ward said. With that in mind, she recently accompanied Gov. Chris Gregoire on a trade mission to Asia. From that, she’s hopeful the center will see more Korean tourists, too.
“There’s this huge interest they have in technical tours and seeing airplanes,” she said.
Spain said the Snohomish County Tourism Bureau also is looking more at the international market. The bureau’s 2007 marketing plan calls for continuing to attract Canadians, who routinely come in large numbers, especially to the Tulalip Casino, the Seattle Premium Outlets stores and the Alderwood mall. But there will be more marketing done to overseas audiences as well.
The bureau also recently made its sports marketing manager a full-time employee, as the county would like to hold more amateur tournaments and other sporting events, which can bring in thousands of visitors at a time.
Reporter Eric Fetters: 425-339-3453 or fetters@heraldnet.com.
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