More than 5.6 million people visited Lewis County last year, an uptick of 5.8% over 2022, according to data from Discover Lewis County, a tourism initiative created by the county and now operated by the Economic Alliance of Lewis County.
Highlighting the 41st annual National Travel and Tourism Week, the organization released its destination summary report for 2023 earlier this month.
According to Discover Lewis County, the report compiles data to track the impact visitors have on the country's economy, community and growth.
“National Travel and Tourism Week is a time to acknowledge the role that travel plays in our community,” Todd Chaput, initiatives program manager at the Economic Alliance of Lewis County, stated in a news release.
“Tourism fuels our economy, benefits local businesses and improves the quality of life for our citizens. We’re grateful for the opportunity to acknowledge its impact in Lewis County.”
According to the destination report, 54.53% of visitors to Lewis County came from within Washington while 45.47% traveled from outside of the state.
The top markets that visitors came from were the Seattle and Tacoma area, Portland and Yakima/Tri-Cities.
The three most common points of interest were Mount Rainier, the Centralia shopping districts and the Chehalis shopping districts. The most common time to visit Lewis County was in June, July and August.
In November, Discover Lewis County announced a revamped digital strategy as the organization looks to capitalize on tourism.
Discover Lewis County also introduced merchandise for each town in Lewis County. The expansion of town-specific marketing will also include new tabs on the Discover Lewis County website and brochures for each community as the organization looks to establish unique brands for each town.
Learn more about the Economic Alliance of Lewis County at https://lewiscountyalliance.org/.
Discover Lewis County’s online offerings can be found at https://discoverlewiscounty.com/.
