Seattle tourist boom! Record numbers of visitors pouring in


		Karen Ducey / P-I
	Cruise ship passengers wait to be picked up after disembarking from their ship in Seattle. They had just gotten back from a cruise to Alaska.

Lamont is the bellman stationed at the entrance to the Sheraton Seattle Hotel & Towers downtown. That's where he was one day last week, as on many days in the past 24 years, when yet another SUV pulled up stuffed with suitcases for him to unload.

"It takes a toll," says Lamont, a part-time drummer. "But because of the excellent and courteous service I provide, people are generous with their gratuities."

Based on numbers from Seattle's Convention and Visitors Bureau, this summer's tourist season is on pace to be the busiest in the city's history.

Hotels are packed, and record numbers of people are passing through the city on their way to cruise ships.

More people are following guides into the bowels of the city on Underground Tours. Increasing demand has led the Ride the Ducks Tour to send another bus quacking through the city's streets.

For people like Lamont, it means aching arms. But even ordinary pedestrians trying to walk down crowded sidewalks may experience subtle changes in their daily lives because of the tourism rebound from the bleak days after 9/11 and the nationwide slump in airplane travel.

"It's crazy," said Anne, 25, sitting outside the Westlake Center mall on a break from her job as sales clerk in a camera store. "People just stop in the middle of the street. They're too busy looking around and taking in things."

But there's a flip side. For Greg Steinhoft, the morning ride on the 49 bus from Capitol Hill to downtown Monday brought a conversation with a family from China.

"It was cool," he said. "They took my picture, and the girl gave the peace sign and said 'Elvis!' "

From the numbers, it's too early to tell if this summer will beat last year's record for tourism, said Don Welsh, president and chief executive of Seattle's Convention and Visitors Bureau. "But in the back of my mind, I think that's realistic," he said.

Downtown hotels have been busier this summer than they were last year. In June 2005, Seattle hotels were 79 percent booked; this June, they were 81.9 percent full. Convention and Visitors Bureau spokesman David Bladford said July hotel bookings are slightly exceeding last year's rate, and while it's too early to predict August, the numbers are looking strong.

In 1995, King County counted 7.2 million hotel visitors. The number rose steadily to crest at 8.7 million in 2000, but then dipped slightly in 2001, the year of 9/11 (the Nisqually Quake that year also caused localized dropoffs in areas such as Pioneer Square). The 2000 level wasn't reached again until 2004, and then 2005 set a new high.

"Last year was a record-setting year for us," said Penny Truitt, spokeswoman for Bill Speidel's Underground Tour, which probes the subterranean history of Pioneer Square. "We've really been down since the earthquake." The return of the tourists allowed the company to hire 12 more guides, she said.

Perhaps the biggest fundamental factor in the boom, Welsh said, is the Port of Seattle's decision to expand cruise ship activity, which has increased the number of cruise passengers coming through Seattle from 6,000 in 1999 to 363,000 in 2005.

This year, an estimated 385,000 passengers are expected to embark on 198 sailings from Seattle. Somewhat like in the city's early boom years, when prospectors bound for the 1897 Klondike Gold Rush enriched Seattle, cruise-ship passengers have fed the local tourism industry.

But, Welsh said, "my personal belief of what started (the rebound) is the opening (in 2004) of the public library that Rem Koolhaas designed. It received incredible worldwide attention, and portrayed the maturity of the city."

After several years' absence, Seattle has made it back onto Travel + Leisure magazine's list of the 10 most popular destination cities in the United States and Canada, based on a reader survey.

Bladford said a "perfect storm" of factors has powered the surge. As the cost of travel gets more expensive, people are trying to cram as much as possible into their vacations. Seattle is well positioned to take advantage, he said, offering a well contained, easily navigated tourist area around downtown and two national parks nearby, as well as a point of departure for cruises.

For years, Bladford said, the city has been considered underserved by hotels because of the lack of land for new buildings. But chains such as Marriott have built hotels as land has become available. The Sheraton is expanding its downtown hotel.

In the '90s, he said, Seattle's image began evolving from a place where it rained all the time to a hip city and the birthplace of grunge. Movies such as "Sleepless in Seattle," he said, also helped color over the gray, and the benefits are being reaped today.

Alan Kay, spokesman for the Travel Industry Association of America, said travel in general is rebounding after 9/11. Growing cities such as Seattle are attracting more visitors simply because there are more friends and family members living there to visit, he said.

Tourism poured $4.3 billion into King County's economy last year, the convention and visitors bureau says. Lamont said the tips help him pay the bills. Richard Tanner, a newly hired captain of one of the duck buses, said the job gives him the security he couldn't find as a summer fishing guide in Alaska. Cy Porter, who paints portraits and tells fortunes by Victor Steinbrueck Park near the Pike Place Market, said more tourism means more money to support his work. The bigger crowds also means more inspiration, he said.

"That hair," he said pointing to a figure in one of his postcard paintings, "comes from a woman who was sitting over there one day."

But things are not all rosy for everyone involved in the industry.

Haftu Assefa, an Orange Cab driver who was waiting for a fare downtown one day last week, said a lot of hotels favor limo services for transporting their guests. That, and competition from shuttle buses to the airport, cut down on any benefit from tourism, he said. Meanwhile, the price of gas, which cabbies themselves pay, just keeps rising.

P-I reporter Kery Murakami can be reached at 206-448-8131 or kerymurakami@seattlepi.com.

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