On April 30, Gov. Bob Ferguson signed into law  a bill that will help to fund tourism without relying so heavily on the state budget.

This year, the Washington State Legislature agreed to allocate $3 million to tourism over the next two years, so $1.5 million a year. This was preserved in light of a $12 billion statewide deficit. That’s a reduction from state funding of $9 million for the 2023-2025 biennium, or $4.5 million a year. The bill was introduced to the Legislature by Sen. Marcus Riccelli (D-3).

Our neighbors in the western United States see much more funding come their way.

In Idaho, the tourism program receives $10.9 million a year, or $21.8 million over two years. Oregon gets $38.3 million a year or $76.6 million to bring tourists to their state. California’s budget is $164 million a year.

“We’re the lowest in the west,” said David Blandford, CEO of State of Washington Tourism. (SWT) “We’ve always been one of if not the lowest in the country.”

California has a secret weapon – for the last 30 years or so, the tourism industry has imposed a self-assessment on select industry business segments like hotels, attractions, restaurants or rental cars. There is a very nominal fee that is passed through to the customer and the proceeds of that come back to the Visit California state tourism program. The program has documented a return on investment of $223.1 million and 97% of assessed businesses are supportive of the program.

“Excitement is growing in our state with the signing of SSB 5492,” said Blandford. Now, the industry can come together to form recommendations to the legislature on how to self-assess for sustainability, leading to a second bill in the 2026 legislative session and, finally, an industry referenda to approve the program.

In Washington state, we don’t have an income tax, but we have a sales tax. The more tourists who visit the state means that they are spending money at hotels, restaurants, attractions, bowling alleys and retail stores. The tax from these sales goes into the state budget—the industry basically imports taxpayers.

“Tourism is also one of our largest export industries,” Blandford said. “The product already exists but we have to get it to market. That’s what an appropriately funded state tourism program could do for our industry.”

Tourism funding is not just funds that go to direct marketing organizations that help bring in tourists to the state.

For example, tourism and hospitality leaders envision an always-on consumer marketing program with destination campaigns as well as niche campaigns integrated with regional marketing initiatives and timed to need periods and shoulder- and off-seasons.

“Overseas tourism markets could be fully activated around Washington tour product sales, promotions, consumer marketing and earned media programs,” Blandford said. “And SWT could directly re-invest in the Washington tourism industry through ongoing destination development and management programs that include community and regional grants, technical assistance, business acceleration, traveler advisory, responsible travel campaigns and crisis management and recovery.”

The bill requires that the industry forms an assessment advisory group in late July—90 days after the end of the legislative session.

Summer listening sessions are planned with prospective industry segments. Industry discussions so far have modeled an assessment rate of 0.2% of every dollar, or two-tenths of a cent (the rate used successfully by Visit California). If a customer has a bill for $200 at a hotel, that assessment would be $0.40.

“It’s even lower of course on an attraction ticket or what have you,” he said. “We’re talking cents but spread across multiple industry segments it adds up.”

Of course, the panel will make the ultimate decision as to how much the industry will assess, and they must present the plan to the Legislature by Nov. 1.

“California has done it, even the nation’s destination marketing organization, Brand USA, works this way too,” Blandford said. “The future of destination programming and funding is really that the industry has an equity role, program oversight, and requires direct program benefits back to participating segments. This is a modern and sustainable way forward for Washington’s tourism and hospitality industries.”