There is new data being reported that shows downtown Seattle is approaching pre-pandemic tourism levels. New data released by the Downtown Seattle Association (DSA) shows the city has had a busy tourist season. The numbers released by DSA on Friday show downtown welcomed 2.9 million visitors in July, which was the highest monthly visitor total since the start of the pandemic.
With a boom in visitors, the demand for hotel rooms in downtown reached 94 percent of 2019 levels. The numbers are said to be closing in on pre-pandemic levels in a handful of economic recovery categories. Better economics usually mean less crime and a better feeling city. Seattle’s tourism industry is hopeful numbers will continue to climb closer to pre-pandemic levels.
DSA said July saw Seattle office workers returning to downtown at only about 40 percent of 2019 totals. However, they did say that’s the highest since the start of the pandemic and are hopeful those numbers along with others will continue to rise.
James Sido of the DSA said, “We hear anecdotally from people all the time that downtown’s looking great, it’s feeling great, there’s a lot of activity and it’s vibrant right now and what we want to do is put some numbers behind what people are seeing.”
Sido also said, “We’re outpacing anything during the pandemic which is a great indicator.” He also stated that, “These numbers are not yet at 100 percent across the board because that would mean we’re exceeding all the pre-pandemic metrics. But we are outpacing the activity that we’ve had over the last two years.”
