Visit Tri Cities highlights $630M visitor impact, seeks use of $1.4M TPA reserves for research, marketing and events

Visit Tri Cities President and CEO Kevin Lewis presented the tourism organization's 2024 annual report and the 2025 work plan to the Pasco City Council on Monday, and requested the city consider recommended uses of roughly $1.4 million in tourism performance assessment (TPA) reserve funds.

The presentation said visitors generated about $630,000,000 in spending in the Tri Cities in 2024 and produced approximately $77,000,000 in tax revenues. Lewis said the office recorded total 2024 revenues near $3,500,000 and expenses near $2,900,000, leaving about $1,400,000 in TPA reserves. “Those extra monies go into reserve account and this is specific to the tourism performance assessment revenues,” Lewis said.

Lewis described a set of proposed reserve expenditures the hotel-motel commission reviewed and recommended to the council. He listed research and reporting services to improve data collection and analysis; a short-term rental research subscription (citing a vendor called AirDNA) to track listings and trends; subscriptions to AI marketing…