PORTLAND, Ore. — A study released by Travel Portland show people are coming back into Portland over the summer months. Travel Portland said the city experienced the strongest months of tourism since before the pandemic.
"It's exciting news for the city and our recovery," said Marcus Hibdon, vice president of Communications and International tourism with Travel Portland. "A really strong indicator that tourism is making significant gains for now and into the future."
Hibdon pointed to a number of major events this summer drawing foot traffic into downtown Portland, like the Foo Fighters concert at Providence Park and the Waterfront Blues Fest at Tom McCall Waterfront Park. In August, the Rockstar Energy Skateboarding Open drew big crowds to the waterfront. In total, June and July saw more than 2 million people downtown. Travel Portland said that's the highest amount since 2019.
"Word of mouth is now working in our favor, people are coming to Portland, they're spending the night and they're going home and telling their friends and family."
Hotel stays were another indicator of how many people visited Portland. The numbers released by Travel Portland showed that in June, July and August of 2024, hotel occupancy rates were just more than 10% higher than the previous year. In the last few years, more hotel rooms have also opened up. For instance, the downtown Ritz-Carlton, which opened in October 2023 features 251 additional hotel rooms downtown. Travel Portland said that room demand in 2019 was slightly higher than the summer months of 2024, but a promising sign of things to come.
"We had some of the biggest nights where occupancy at downtown hotels climbed into the low 90 percentiles. It's the highest amount of occupancy we've seen since the summer of 2019. Those are numbers that we would expect prior to the pandemic, with some of the livability issues and challenges the city's had several years ago." Hibdon said.
The Oregon Restaurant and Lodging Association, which represents more than 600 restaurants and hotels in Portland was encouraged by the numbers.
"That's a good sign obviously, it's trending in the right direction that people are coming back to Portland to visit. Summer is the peak season for that," said Greg Astley, director of Government Affairs for the organization.
Astley added that 90% occupancy rate is the goal for most hotels and thinks that as more conventions reserve spots in downtown, the hotel occupancy rates will climb even more and reach peak levels.
"We hope people will come back in the fall and in the winter and even in the spring and enjoy some of those places they've already been or explore some new ones," Astley said.
It's no secret that Portland's reputation and downtown core took a hit during the pandemic. Capacity restrictions, business closures and multiple nights of riots turned Portland into a ghost town for several months. As the restrictions eased and riots came to an end, Portland eventually saw more people come back to the city in the summers of 2022 and 2023, but it was gradual. Hibdon says the newest numbers are encouraging for what's to come for future summer tourism numbers.
"I think the city's in better shape than it's been. It's cleaner, it looks good, it feels good," Hibdon said, "We have downtown events again that are drawing people into the city core. Of course the dining scene is as strong as it ever was, if not better."