Tourism 2.0

Washington turns to social networks and other innovations to drive a $14 billion industry.

By Bill Virgin |   August 2010   |  FROM THE PRINT EDITION

Photographs courtesy of Space Needle, Boeing, Apostrophe Productions, Pike Place Market

When the Future of Flight Aviation Center & Boeing Tour sent out an invitation via Twitter for its Aviation Geekfest at noon one day last December, it figured the 50 open slots would be grabbed up by the end of the day.

Elapsed time to claim them all: 52 seconds.

And it wasn’t just locals who were clamoring for the spots, says Sandy Ward, marketing director for the Snohomish County attraction. Queries came from as far away as Portland, Denver and Chicago.

That there would be such fervent interest in a special tour of Boeing’s huge Everett plant isn’t so surprising. The Future of Flight center draws 200,000 visitors a year.

But what it does illustrate is a new era for the tourism industry generally and for Washington’s in particular, a new way of getting information to potential visitors, a new way of connecting and communicating with them, and a potentially powerful way of converting the curious into paying customers. And how well Washington’s tourism industry masters those technologies and techniques matters not only to that sector but also to the state’s entire economy. 

Tourism may be hard to define precisely—aside from the obvious components such as hotel stays, it can include everything from museums to golf courses, wineries, sports venues and shopping malls, and everyone from locals out for a day trip to visitors from outside the United States here for a couple of weeks.

Whatever the exact size the tourism industry actually is, it’s big. An economic impact study prepared for and released by the state Department of Commerce says tourism accounted for $14.2 billion in spending last year, as well as $1 billion in state tax revenue and 147,600 jobs (3 percent of the state’s total employment). The value of Washington’s tourism “exports” was greater than that for both micro-electronics and wood products. Tourism is also significant for the companies that have grown up here, from Alaska Air Group to Holland America Line to Expedia.

Tourism is a big deal for the Seattle-Puget Sound region as well. Seattle’s Convention and Visitors Bureau preliminary numbers for 2009 show 8.8 million visitors spending $6.8 billion while visiting the city and King County. The numbers for 2009 are down from 2008, although the Seattle tourism bureau says it’s expecting a rebound in 2010.

But such fluctuations are typical of a highly cyclical industry that can be helped or hindered by everything from regional, national or global recession to fuel prices

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