Seattle crowds — and spending — surge
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Checking out the market. Photo: James Sido/Courtesy of Downtown Seattle Association
Downtown Seattle is drawing more visitors and shoppers as tourism season ramps up.
The big picture: Cruise ships are back, tourists are crowding the waterfront and shoppers are spending more money downtown than they were this time last year, according to the Downtown Seattle Association's latest dashboard.
By the numbers: More than 2.8 million unique visitors came downtown in April, a 5% increase from a year earlier and 104% of April 2019 levels, according to Placer.ai data used in the report.
- The central waterfront — including Overlook Walk, the aquarium and Piers 62 and 58 — logged more than 165,000 visits last month, up 8% year over year.
- Shoppers spent more than $418 million downtown during the first quarter of 2026, a 17% jump from the same period last year.
- Spending at specialty shops more than doubled year over year, the fastest-growing category.
The latest figures continue trends outlined in DSA's annual economic report earlier this year, which found downtown visits had already surpassed pre-pandemic levels.
Yes, but: Office recovery is still lagging.
- Average weekday worker foot traffic in April was still just 60% of 2019 levels and declined 6% from a year earlier, which DSA attributed partly to continued job losses downtown.
- And the assessed tax value of the most expensive downtown office buildings last year dropped more than 50% since 2021, according to the Downtown Seattle Association's annual economic report.
What's next: The city's busiest season is just starting, with cruise season ramping up and FIFA around the corner.