Visit Bellevue Executive Director Brad Jones addresses about 200 people attending the organization’s annual meeting on Wednesday at the Meydenbauer Center.
Bellevue’s tourism has nearly fully recovered to pre-pandemic levels — the exception being a slight lag in business travel and more ground to make up in international visits — but the city’s destination marketing organization, armed with new funding from fees on hotel guests, is unveiling programs this year to help Bellevue meet and exceed pre-COVID travel levels.
Bellevue’s tourism resurgence in 2023 was impressive, Brad Jones, executive director of Visit Bellevue, told nearly 200 people gathered for his organization’s annual meeting Wednesday at the Meydenbauer Center. The city recorded 1.95 million overnight visitors who injected $675 million into the economy for a total economic impact of $1.5 billion.
“The trends are still going upward, which we love to see,” Jones said, highlighting a recovery of hotel revenues in the first quarter. Remaining headwinds include business travel, which is at about 95% pre-pandemic, and inbound international travel, at about 65%, he said. “So in 2024, really our goal is to expand our horizons by promoting and achieving a whole rebound in these segments.”
With new visitor and marketing programs boosted by new Tourism Promotion Area funds, he anticipates tourism’s impact to grow to $2 billion this year.
Visit Bellevue plans to promote culinary tourism this year, including working with celebrated chef Shota Nakajima on local and international promotion of Bellevue’s thriving culinary scene.
Some new efforts to boost travel include:
- Visit Bellevue’s first overseas marketing campaign, which is occurring in Japan and includes a custom microsite in Japanese on Visit Bellevue’s website, and related advertising, public relations, social media, and more in Japan. Visit Bellevue also created a yuru-chara character mascot, Belle the Bobcat,