Downtown Seattle seeing notable recovery, reemergence of foot traffic after pandemic
Downtown Seattle is seeing a notable recovery as foot traffic is starting to return to levels that existed before the pandemic.
The Downtown Seattle Association has a recovery dashboard showing data that provides a comparison with the same time period in 2019.
According to DSA, 2.9 million visitors came through downtown in July — the highest monthly visitor total since the start of the pandemic. In July 2019, downtown saw more than 3 million visitors.
In the week of July 18, there were more than 280,000 daily visitors and more than 434,000 daily pedestrian visits, which includes workers, residents and visitors. “Total foot was at its highest since the pandemic,” data stated.
Data also showed that there was more than a 40% increase in worker foot traffic for four consecutive weeks in July. It was the first time since the start of the pandemic that numbers have stayed above that threshold.
When Seattle is compared with cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles for workers returning to their downtown offices, Seattle’s numbers are higher. However, peer cities like Portland and Austin showed a higher number of worker foot traffic.
The demand for hotel rooms downtown in July reached 94% of 2019 levels. According to DSA, hotel revenue reached $4.3 million on July 16, making it the third-highest revenue day in the city’s history.
To get a clear picture of the metrics, click here as the Downtown Seattle Association has more details on how it came up with the metrics.
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