Seattle tourism bounces back as city gears up for World Cup
This story was originally posted on MyNorthwest.com
More and more people are visiting Seattle and King County.
According to recent data from Visit Seattle, 40 million visitors came through last year—a 5.3% increase from 2023 and almost as many as 2019.
Tammy Canavan, President and CEO of Visit Seattle, told KIRO Newsradio the uptick is promising.
'Life is changing sort of minute by minute,' she said. 'So I think we're really encouraged by seeing continuous growth in most markets, and this will be an interesting year to watch.'
However, Canavan noted federal policies are impacting the market.
'We have seen a decline in international visitation to the United States in the first quarter of this year, and we saw flights into Seattle from Canada actually increased from last year, where cross-border traffic has been down,' she said. 'It's complicated and we will continue to keep our finger on the pulse and make sure that we are being nimble enough to invest where we're gonna be able to create the best return for our community.'
Seattle is expecting 750,000 visitors in 2026 for the FIFA World Cup.
'We are very excited for the World Cup and that really affords us such an enormous opportunity to use that—not just for the moment of the six matches that we get to host and all of the people that will come here—but really taking advantage that the eyes of the world are on Seattle and King County and being able to use that as a baseline for further awareness and being able to tell our story in a different way that we wouldn't otherwise have,' she shared.
Tourism in Seattle and King County generated $12.3 billion in 2024, a 7.8% increase from 2023.
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