2024 Lodging Tax Expenditures
BRIEFING REPORT | JULY 2025
Geneva Johnston, data reporting and visual communications analyst
Ryan McCord, audit director; Eric Thomas, legislative auditor
Key points
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Additional data available Information from calendar years 2014 through 2024 is available in an interactive dashboard. |
- Cities, towns, and counties that receive a distribution of lodging tax revenue report the data to Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee (JLARC) staff.
- The report below summarizes data for the last five years. For 2024, municipalities report that:
- Lodging tax revenue helped fund 1,743 tourism-related activities statewide. This includes 970 events/festivals, 483 marketing-related activities, and 290 facility-related projects.
- They awarded $114 million in lodging tax funds for facility-related projects (47%), marketing-related activities (40%), and to events/festivals (13%).
- Funded activities had 115 million attendees, with 54 million traveling over 50 miles, and 33 million traveling from out of state or country.
- Statewide, 38 million attendees paid for overnight lodging, with 24 million paid lodging nights.
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 their data
The 2013 Legislature directed JLARC to collect and report information about local use of lodging tax revenue for tourism purposes.
- 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)).
- Municipalities are responsible for the accuracy of their data.
- JLARC staff maintain an online reporting system, provide reporting guidelines, and publish 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 213 municipalities that received a distribution of lodging tax revenue in 2024.
- 194 (91%) reported information to JLARC. Nineteen (9%) did not.
JLARC staff summarized reporting compliance for the 213 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: 91% of municipalities that received a distribution of lodging tax revenue in 2024 reported information
Source: Data reported by municipalities.
Part 2.
Statewide overview
The following exhibits summarize statewide data.
- 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.
- Descriptions of the data reported are in the Data Field Descriptions document.
Figure 2: Municipalities awarded $114 million in lodging tax revenue in 2024
| 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Funds awarded by municipalities | $55.9 | $51.2 | $69.8 | $79.9 | $114 |
| Funds requested for activities | $57.4 | $53.4 | $85.8 | $80.2 | $95 |
| Total activity cost (including other funds) | $133.2 | $204.7 | $272.1 | $227.3 | $381.7 |
| 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 115 million attendees in 2024
| Attendance | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall attendance | 44.4 | 57.8 | 101.3 | 89.8 | 114.9 |
| Attendees who traveled 50+ miles | 17.0 | 22.4 | 30.9 | 40.5 | 54.4 |
| Attendees from out of state or country | 15.8 | 9.4 | 16.0 | 17.9 | 33.2 |
| 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, and others reported incomplete data. Attendance and lodging totals may not equal overall attendance. JLARC staff compile—but do not verify—this information.
Figure 4: Municipalities reported 24 million paid lodging nights in 2024
| Lodging | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paid lodging nights | 8.0 | 11.9 | 16.0 | 20.9 | 23.7 |
| Attendees who paid for overnight lodging | 8.8 | 6.8 | 17.3 | 16.4 | 37.8 |
| Attendees who did not pay for overnight lodging | 20.0 | 16.3 | 21.5 | 27.1 | 44.8 |
| 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.
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.
- See the Data Field Descriptions for more detail about the data reported.
- Download the full Excel dataset (2014 — 2024) here.
- Click the image to explore the data in the dashboard.
JLARC members on publication date
SenatorsLeonard Christian Keith Goehner Bob Hasegawa Liz Lovelett Jesse Salomon, Chair Shelly Short Keith Wagoner, Secretary
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RepresentativesStephanie Barnard April Berg Jake Fey Deb Manjarrez Stephanie McClintock Ed Orcutt, Vice Chair Gerry Pollet, Assistant Secretary Shaun Scott |