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Tourism advisory group recommends industry-led assessment, $25M target to boost visitor spending

Technology, Economic Development and Veterans Committee · January 20, 2026
AI-Generated Content: All content on this page was generated by AI to highlight key points from the meeting. For complete details and context, we recommend watching the full video. so we can fix them.

Summary

At a work session, State of Washington Tourism and an industry advisory group recommended an industry‑led assessment program targeting about $25 million in annual revenue, projecting $14.6 billion in additional visitor spending over a decade and stressing governance and geographic equity.

Committee members held a work session on strengthening Washington’s visitor economy and heard an advisory group’s recommendations for a sustainable, industry-led funding model.

David Blanford, CEO of State of Washington Tourism, said Washington is ‘‘underfunded relative to market size’’ compared with peer Western states and cited research showing a projected $14.6 billion in additional visitor spending over the next decade if the state…

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