2023 Lodging Tax Expenditures
BRIEFING REPORT | JULY 2024
Geneva Johnston, Data Reporting
and Visual Communications Analyst
Ryan McCord, Audit Director; Eric Thomas,
Legislative Auditor
Key points
Additional data
available
Information from calendar years 2014 through 2023 is available in an interactive dashboard. |
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Cities, towns, and counties that receive a distribution of lodging tax revenue report the data to JLARC staff.
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The report below summarizes data for the last five years. For 2023, the municipalities report that:
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Lodging tax revenue helped fund 1,689 tourism-related activities statewide. This includes 937 events/festivals, 369 marketing-related activities, and 283 facility-related projects.
- They awarded $80 million in lodging tax funds for facility-related projects (52%), marketing-related activities (32%), and to events/festivals (15%).
- Funded activities had 90 million attendees, with 41 million traveling over 50 miles, and 18 million traveling from out of state or country.
- Statewide, 16 million attendees paid for overnight lodging, with 21 million reported paid lodging nights.
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About the report
Municipalities collect and use lodging tax revenue for tourism-related activities
Cities, towns, and counties may levy a tax on lodging in two ways. Lodging includes overnight stays at hotels, motels, bed and breakfasts, RV parks, and other short-term accommodations. These municipalities may:
- Collect a tax of up to 2% that is taken as a credit against the state sales tax.
- Collect an additional sales tax of up to 2%.
The Department of Revenue (DOR) collects the lodging tax and distributes the revenue back to municipalities. Municipalities may spend their lodging tax revenue on three types of tourism-related activities under RCW 67.28.1816:
- Tourism marketing.
- Special events and festivals designed to attract tourists.
- Capital expenditures for tourism-related facilities owned by the municipality.
Municipalities must report and ensure the accuracy of the data
The 2013 Legislature directed the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee (JLARC) to collect and report information about local use of lodging tax revenue for tourism purposes.
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Any municipality that receives a distribution of lodging tax revenue must report information to JLARC (RCW 67.28.1816). King County is exempt from reporting (RCW 67.28.1816(2)(d)).
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Municipalities are responsible for the accuracy of their data.
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JLARC staff maintains an online reporting system, provides reporting guidelines, and publishes the data each year. We do not independently verify the information.
Questions about the reported information should be directed to the individual municipality. To learn more about the reporting process, please visit JLARC's Lodging Tax Data Collection page.
Part 1.
Reporting compliance
The Department of Revenue (DOR) identified 210 municipalities that received a distribution of lodging tax revenue in 2023.
- 199 (95%) reported information to JLARC. Eleven did not.
JLARC staff summarized reporting compliance for the 210 municipalities into the following categories:
- Reported: the municipality received a lodging tax distribution in the current reporting year and reported lodging tax expenditures.
- Reported no expenditures: the municipality received a distribution of lodging tax revenue in the current reporting year and reported that it did not spend lodging tax revenue.
- Did not report: the municipality received a distribution of lodging tax revenue in the current reporting year but did not report whether it spent the funds.
Figure 1: 95% of municipalities that received a distribution of lodging tax revenue in 2023 reported information
Source: Data reported by municipalities
Part 2.
Statewide overview
The following exhibits summarize statewide data.
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Details for each municipality and for previous years are in the full dataset and interactive dashboard. You can get both from the sidebar under Report Materials.
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Descriptions of the data reported are in the Data Field Descriptions document.
Figure 2: Municipalities awarded $80 million in lodging tax revenue in 2023
2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | |
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Funds awarded by municipalities | $76.4 | $55.9 | $51.2 | $69.8 | $79.9 |
Total activity cost (including other funds) | $253.6 | $133.2 | $204.7 | $272.1 | $227.3 |
Funds requested for activities | $68.9 | $57.4 | $53.4 | $85.8 | $80.2 |
values in millions |
Source: Data reported by municipalities that received a distribution of lodging tax revenue, as identified by DOR. Some municipalities did not spend lodging tax or submit reports. JLARC staff compile but do not verify this information.
Figure 3: Municipalities reported 90 million attendees in 2023
Attendance | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
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Overall attendance | 72.7 | 44.4 | 57.8 | 101.3 | 89.8 |
Attendees who traveled 50+ miles | 35.2 | 17.0 | 22.4 | 30.9 | 40.5 |
Attendees from out of state or country | 16.5 | 15.8 | 9.4 | 16.0 | 17.9 |
values in millions |
Source: Data reported by municipalities that received a distribution of lodging tax revenue as identified by DOR. Some municipalities did not spend lodging tax or submit reports, while other reported incomplete data. Attendance subtotals may not equal overall attendance. JLARC staff compile, but do not verify this information.
Figure 4: Municipalities reported 21 million paid lodging nights in 2023
Lodging | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
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Paid lodging nights | 16.1 | 8.0 | 11.9 | 16.0 | 20.9 |
Attendees who paid for overnight lodging | 12.4 | 8.8 | 6.8 | 17.3 | 16.4 |
Attendees who did not pay for overnight lodging | 24.8 | 20.0 | 16.3 | 21.5 | 27.1 |
values in millions |
Source: Data reported by municipalities that received a distribution of lodging tax revenue as identified by DOR. Some municipalities did not spend lodging tax or submit reports, and others reported incomplete data. Attendance and lodging totals may not equal overall attendance. JLARC staff compile, but do not verify this information.
Municipalities reported that 56 events (3%) were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. In comparison, municipalities reported that 14% of events in 2022 were affected.
Part 3.
Interactive data
View each municipality's annual funding, attendance, and lodging data
The interactive dashboard contains statewide totals for funding, attendance, and lodging by year. Data can be filtered by municipality to view activity-specific detail, municipality comments, and reporting compliance.
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See the Data Field Descriptions for more detail about the data reported.
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Download the full Excel dataset (2014 - 2023) here.
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Click on the image to explore the data in the dashboard.
JLARC members on publication date
SenatorsBob Hasegawa Liz Lovelett Mark Mullet, Chair Ann Rivers Jesse Salomon Shelly Short Lynda Wilson, Secretary Keith Wagoner |
RepresentativesEmily Alvarado Stephanie Barnard April Berg Jake Fey Keith Goehner Stephanie McClintock Ed Orcutt, Vice Chair Gerry Pollet, Assistant Secretary |