[ratbear]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/travel/2003777371_webseattletrav07.html

Seattle and King County are attracting record numbers of visitors who are opening their wallets wider than ever before.

According to a new report by the Seattle's Convention and Visitors Bureau (SCVB), the number of overnight visitors grew to a record 9.4 million last year, up 3.4 percent from 2005.

The visitors spent a record $4.75 billion, up 10 percent. Total state and local taxes paid by visitors while in King County rose 11.4 percent, from $376 million in 2005 to $419 million in 2006.

"We're very encouraged by 2007 year-to-date hotel performance, convention attendance, Port of Seattle cruise business and worldwide media coverage of the Olympic Sculpture Park and other Seattle attractions," said Don Welsh, SCVB President and CEO.

This year also is shaping up to be a good one for tourism, officials said. On June 11, Air France inaugurated non-stop service between Seattle and Paris, and this week, Aeromexico inaugurated the first daily non-stop service between Seattle and Mexico City.

The Port of Seattle projects record passenger volumes of 435,000 in this year, with five major cruise lines offering 191 sailings from the Port of Seattle through November 4.

A survey of AAA travel agency managers in April identified Seattle as one of its "hot spots" for summer 2007. Seattle ranked third among domestic destinations following Orlando and Las Vegas. New York and Los Angeles rounded out the top-five destinations.
Copyright © 2007 The Seattle Times Company

[Rossiapacifica]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/travel/2003777371_webseattletrav07.html

The Port of Seattle projects record passenger volumes of 435,000 in this year, with five major cruise lines offering 191 sailings from the Port of Seattle through November 4.

Copyright © 2007 The Seattle Times Company

Correct me if I'm wrong, but shouldn't it be 735,000 passengers and not 435,000 passengers?

Rossiapacifica

[mhays]

Maybe. The 735,000 figure sounds familiar.

On the other hand, we do hear two sets of numbers that are both right. One is a little more than half of the other -- because one counts passengers once (per cruise), and the other counts 99% of them twice (because most cruise passengers visit the Seattle terminal at both ends).

But yeah, the 435,000 figure is probably too high to be the "once" figure.

[destroybananas]

^well it was a record number wasn't it?

[blackc5]

So, here's a question in regards to conventions. Whats the bigger bottleneck for Seattle attracting some of the larger conventions out there - is it a limitation of actual convention space, or more a shortage of hotel rooms to handle the larger conventions? My guess is the latter, but anyone truly know?

[J. Will]

So, here's a question in regards to conventions. Whats the bigger bottleneck for Seattle attracting some of the larger conventions out there - is it a limitation of actual convention space, or more a shortage of hotel rooms to handle the larger conventions? My guess is the latter, but anyone truly know?

The Convention Centre is a fraction the size of convention centres in other cities, so I'd guess that's the bottleneck. Even Vancouver's convention centre will dwarf Seattle's in size when the current expansion is done.

[James Bond Agent 007]

Walking around downtown Seattle today, this doesn't surprise me one bit.

[seaskyfan]

^ Agreed. I think all 9 million or so were Downtown today. All standing around with those maps (from the Downtown Seattle Association?) they all seem to have and ordering overly complex drinks at all the coffee places.

[MrVandelay]

Top travel destination? You're already there
By Nancy Bartley and Nancy Kelsey
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/travel/2003778577_tourist07m.html
Seattle Times staff reporters

Seattle needs more ducks.

Not ducks that waddle and quack, but large motorized ducks with tires and canopies and drivers that give loosey-goosey running commentaries on the city and its sights.

Seattle Duck Tours, which transports tourists over land and water in amphibious vehicles, is "buying more equipment — more ducks," said President and CEO Brian Tracey.

That's because the city has a lot of prospective passengers, and more are on the way.

A record number of tourists are visiting the Northwest this summer.

They come to visit relatives and attend conventions, staying a few extra days en route to other places or making Seattle a destination. They add billions to the local economy when they stay in hotels, rent cars and buy airline tickets, souvenirs and food.

Last year, visitors spent $4.75 billion here — up 10 percent over 2005, said Don Welsh, chief executive officer of Seattle's Convention and Visitors Bureau. This year is on pace to draw even more.

The number of overnight visitors has steadily increased over the past four years, hitting a record 9.4 million in 2006, up 3.4 percent over the previous year, Welsh said. State and local taxes paid by visitors to King County rose as well, from more than $370 million in 2005 to $419 million in 2006, an 11.4 percent increase.

The average Seattle visitor spent $97 a day last year, Welsh said.

Seattle tourists come primarily from the 13 Western states, particularly from Northern California, he said. Many also come for cruises, either departing from Seattle or stopping off here: Over the years the number of ships stopping in Seattle has increased, typically bringing Floridians and New Yorkers, especially during summer, Welsh said.

The Port of Seattle projects record passenger volumes of 435,000 this year, with five major cruise lines offering 191 sailings from the Port through Nov. 4. Many Seattle visitors often spend only a day or two and then board a ferry for Victoria, B.C.

Janet Ray, AAA Washington spokeswoman, said it's difficult to say what cities are the hottest U.S. tourist destinations since any survey will be influenced by the region in which it's taken. But a survey of AAA managers listed Seattle as third, following Orlando, Fla., and Las Vegas, as a popular tourist destination.

Seattle tourists may have visited traditional draws and now want something different.

"We're starting to see that after they've gone to Disney World once or twice ... they're wanting a more real experience," Welsh said.

Seattle's "walkability" has helped its popularity, travel experts say. Visitors can see many things within a small area.

The Propsom family from Minnesota, for example, caught an eyeful at Pike Place Market on Friday.

You know you're not in the Land of Ten Thousand Lakes anymore when the fish vendor hands you each a large salmon, then lines you up to take a photo for future Christmas cards.

You know you're not in Minnesota anymore when the duck you're riding takes you past the Edgewater Hotel to show you where the Beatles once dangled fishing poles into the water.

You know you're not in Viking country anymore when you hear your daughter shriek: "Eeeew! Clams stink!"

"Do we have clams in Minnesota?" asked Jane Propsom. She and her husband, Craig, and daughters Emily, 12, Abby, 10, and Katie, 8, drove to Seattle on a six-week vacation.

As Abby pondered the clams' smell, her sisters and mother honed in on a crayfish barrel.

Jane snapped a photo.

"Anyone here want to buy fish?" the fish vendor asked the crowd of 50 who gathered to watch people pose with a monk fish, play with crayfish and dodge flying salmon. "You do know we sell fish, right?"

The Market's popularity notwithstanding, it's not nearly the city's main business draw.

Welsh said the Washington State Convention and Trade Center manages to stay competitive despite new convention centers springing up throughout the country. He remains optimistic that it will keep busy as large local businesses such as Boeing and Microsoft attract travelers.

"We're very encouraged by 2007 year-to-date hotel performance, convention attendance, Port of Seattle cruise business and worldwide media coverage of the Olympic Sculpture Park and other Seattle attractions," Welsh said.

Also a boon to tourism is the June 11 inauguration of Air France's nonstop service between Seattle and Paris, and this week, Aeromexico's first daily nonstop service between Seattle and Mexico City.

A few months ago Washington AAA managers tried to predict how the escalating gas prices would affect tourism, Ray said. They found that "more people are choosing long weekends as vacation alternatives to taking a full week or two-week vacation. It's part of the work world where people find it difficult to get away for two weeks. They want to take advantage of places where they can walk to attractions and measure their budgets," she said.

"Attractions" such as Seattle Duck Tours, where business jumped 38 percent from 2005 to 2006, CEO Tracey said.

People from all over come to ride the ducks — even people from Minnesota, which may not have clams but does have a state muffin. Blueberry.

Seattle Times travel writer Carol Pucci contributed to this report.
Nancy Bartley: 206-464-8522 or nbartley@seattletimes.com

[mhays]

The Convention Centre is a fraction the size of convention centres in other cities, so I'd guess that's the bottleneck. Even Vancouver's convention centre will dwarf Seattle's in size when the current expansion is done.

True. It was small when it was built, miniscule before it expanded, and small after it expanded. Its niche isn't major conventions, but ones in the 2,000-5,000 range, normally high-spenders like doctors or scientists. We seem to do pretty well in that niche.

It works great for Downtown. While other cities routinely draw conventions with twice as many attendees as nearby rooms, our conventioners can all live within walking distance if they're willing to pay. We'll have 11,000 rooms in greater Downtown by next year, over 7,000 of which are a realistic walk from that 5,000-person convention. One benefit is we don't need shuttle buses. Conventions also bring big spikes in retail sales, because conventioneers spend like drunken sailors when they happen to be next to retail.

Back to general tourism...

There's a factor not much discussed, but I think very sizeable: It's not just that more people are coming here, but that they're choosing to spend more time Downtown while they're here. If they're visiting friends for a few days, they're not just hitting a ferry boat one day and driving to Mt. Rainier the next. They're heading Downtown and spending large amounts of time here.

Cruise ship passengers are a big chunk (as it were) of what's happening. They typically go right to the ship or spend a single night here. The latter option is good for us all by itself. But either way, they often decide to come back another time. In that sense, the cruise ships are possibly our best advertising vehicle (as it were), because they bring people who'd never have come to Seattle otherwise.

I love watching Seattle's transformation into a higher-level city. In one of the funny miketoronto threads I commented that Seattle with 52,000 Downtown residents wasn't dense or vibrant enough, and I want us to quickly reach the predicted 100,000 figure. But that's just a piece of becoming vibrant like a bigger city. Tourists are another huge part. In fact, tourists get out and DO stuff more than Downtown residents. They eat at restaurants every single night, support our performing arts, spend an astonishing amount of money in our stores (Nordstrom has reported 50% tourist spending), and fill the sidewalks in some key neighborhoods.

[J. Will]

True. It was small when it was built, miniscule before it expanded, and small after it expanded. Its niche isn't major conventions, but ones in the 2,000-5,000 range, normally high-spenders like doctors or scientists. We seem to do pretty well in that niche.

It works great for Downtown. While other cities routinely draw conventions with twice as many attendees as nearby rooms, our conventioners can all live within walking distance if they're willing to pay. We'll have 11,000 rooms in greater Downtown by next year, over 7,000 of which are a realistic walk from that 5,000-person convention. One benefit is we don't need shuttle buses. Conventions also bring big spikes in retail sales, because conventioneers spend like drunken sailors when they happen to be next to retail.

Back to general tourism...

There's a factor not much discussed, but I think very sizeable: It's not just that more people are coming here, but that they're choosing to spend more time Downtown while they're here. If they're visiting friends for a few days, they're not just hitting a ferry boat one day and driving to Mt. Rainier the next. They're heading Downtown and spending large amounts of time here.

Cruise ship passengers are a big chunk (as it were) of what's happening. They typically go right to the ship or spend a single night here. The latter option is good for us all by itself. But either way, they often decide to come back another time. In that sense, the cruise ships are possibly our best advertising vehicle (as it were), because they bring people who'd never have come to Seattle otherwise.

I love watching Seattle's transformation into a higher-level city. In one of the funny miketoronto threads I commented that Seattle with 52,000 Downtown residents wasn't dense or vibrant enough, and I want us to quickly reach the predicted 100,000 figure. But that's just a piece of becoming vibrant like a bigger city. Tourists are another huge part. In fact, tourists get out and DO stuff more than Downtown residents. They eat at restaurants every single night, support our performing arts, spend an astonishing amount of money in our stores (Nordstrom has reported 50% tourist spending), and fill the sidewalks in some key neighborhoods.


Would it even be possible to expand Seattle's convention centre any more? When I was there I walked alongside it, but didn't actually walk all the way around it, so I couldn't see if there was any vacant land it could expand into. Toronto was lucky in that it's main convention centre sat just across the rail tracks from a huge amount of vacant land. In the mid-late 1990s, an underground expansion was made to that land (underneath the train tracks), making it one of the largest centres on the continent. The total size of the centre now is mindboggling - I saw this when I went to the auto show a few years ago. Vancouver too was using the land adjacent to it's convention centre for railyards, storage and whatnot. When they did away with that, it left lots of space for the massive expansion they're currently getting. I don't know what it's square footage will be when the expansion is done, but from the photos it looks enormous.

Residential density is important, but it has to be done right. Downtown Miami's "Brickell" area has thousands and thousands of residents in a very small geographic area, but many of the towers sit well back from the street behind greenspace and fences. There is little retail (though some of the newer buildings are built up to the sidewalk with retail) and even less nightlife. Residents there get in their cars and drive to do such basic everyday things as supermarket shopping. Even if you do have retail, if that retail is designed to face an interior courtyard (or parking lot) instead of opening up onto the sidewalk, it can lead to some of the same problems of lack of vibrancy/"urban feeling".

[mhays]

Seattle's convention center might expand into a downstairs space that was once (late 1990s) intended to be the new location for the Museum of History and Industry. This space probably totals 50,000 square feet. It was the temporary main library when the new library was being built, and recently held the "bodies" exhibit for several months. It's oddly situated as a way to expand a convention area, but it would work great for a separate event because it has its own main entrance.

Otherwise, the WSCTC is hemmed in on one side by First Hill (dense housing) and the CBD, with Freeway Park to the south. The one possibility would be going north and building another lid over I-5. That idea actually seems to have promise though it hasn't been discussed publicly to my knowledge. Getting people from the existing exhibition halls to the new one would require just as much skybridge area as the last expansion, and would be very controversial because people don't like the current skybridges. Even then it would be a bit awkward. And really, you'd only get maybe another 100,000 sf of exhibition hall. You'd block the view from Four Columns Park, but you could create a better park on the roof.

We can't hold major conventions, but we're served ok for locally-centered events. Seahawks Stadium came with an adjoining exhibition hall. The main hall is 180,000 sf plus a 30,000 sf mezzanine. The high-ceilinged bottom level of the parking garage adds 90,000 sf more. Include the stadium concourses and you can put on an RV show, for example, in something like 400,000 (or 500,000?) sf.

I'm not sure adding convention space is a good buy these days. Too many other cities are doing it. Conventions themselves might have peaked in popularity. And there's nothing wrong with being a great city for a 3,000-person surgeon's convention.

[mhays]

And yes, that density does have to be walkable -- residential towers, hotels, offices, etc. Seattle does a good job of building in an urban format rather than setbacks and driveways leading to port cocheres. Keep building rail and this might be a real big city one of these years.

[destroybananas]

yay