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Visit Spokane reports strong visitation numbers, urges council to help retain temporary lodging fee
Summary
Visit Spokane presented 2025 results — "one point five million visitors," expanded marketing reach and booked conventions — and asked council to help lobby to keep an elevated $5 lodging assessment that "sunsets in July of twenty twenty seven." Staff described local spending of roughly $700,000 and promoted the Inspire makers campaign.
Rose Noble delivered Visit Spokane’s quarterly update, highlighting marketing reach, room‑night bookings and an artisan‑focused campaign.
Noble reported "one point five million visitors," nearly 100,000 net social followers and distribution of 170,000 visitor maps. She said the organization referred roughly 14,300 rooms through its booking engine and credited advertising reach of about 45 million impressions across the year.
Noble described a new Inspire campaign that compensates and elevates local artisans and makers, and noted the organization spent just over $700,000 locally with vendors and makers. She said the Visit Spokane annual operating budget is roughly $5 million.
A central policy ask: the local tourism promotion assessment (lodging fee) that was increased during the pandemic to $5 per qualifying room night "sunsets in July of twenty twenty seven" and a bill to extend the higher rate did not clear rules in the recent session. Noble asked council members to work with local legislators and the business community to seek a permanent extension; she noted the fee is not a tax but an industry‑approved assessment used to fund marketing and convention work.
Council members asked about forward bookings and how modest activations might translate into room nights. Noble said staff use bookings-on-the-books and market intelligence to project future room nights and highlighted large contracts in negotiation for 2027 and beyond.
