(The Center Square) – The Snohomish County Tourism Promotion Area is looking to spend down its $6.3 million fund balance in 2024.
This marks the first time that the county’s tourism promotion area is spending more than revenue it is bringing in. According to the proposed 2024 Snohomish County Tourism Promotion Area Business Plan, expenditures are set at approximately $3.3 million, with anticipated revenue set at $2.4 million.
The tourism promotion area imposes a $2 per night charge on lodging businesses that have 40 or more lodging units.
In 2019, the Tourism Promotion Area Advisory Board chose to increase the self-assessment fee from $1 to $2. The increase went into effect in July 2020, at which point the advisory board chose to spend down the fund “due to the unpredictability of the tourism industry during the pandemic,” according to Trudy Soriano from the Snohomish County Economic Development Office.
“Since the pandemic, [tourism promotion area] revenues have been relatively healthy, and the undesignated fund balance has grown,” Soriano told The Center Square via email.
Soriano said that the 2024 Snohomish County Tourism Promotion Area Business Plan has projected revenues lower than expenditures because the advisory board is taking steps to spend down the undesignated $6.3 million fund balance.
Soriano added that expenditures surpassing revenues does not mean that there is less lodging and our tourism projected in Snohomish County in 2024. In fact, projected revenues for 2024 are anticipated to reach $2.37 million. That is a 6.8% increase over the 2023 projected $2.22 million in revenue.
In comparison, the $3.3 million in 2024 proposed expenditures is a 47.2% increase over the $2.2 million in expenditures budgeted in 2023.
Snohomish County confirmed that there is no deadline to use the undesignated funds.
The proposed 2024 tourism promotion area plan will go to the county’s Finance, Budget, and Administration Committee for its approval, as previously reported by The Center Square. The committee’s next meeting is set for Jan. 9.
