The Inland Northwest tourism sector is expected to see steady growth in 2025, destination marketing leaders for Spokane County and North Idaho say.

Rose Noble, president and CEO of Visit Spokane, says her organization is projecting conservatively a 2% increase in hotel overnight stays—a common metric used to measure tourism, also referred to as definite room nights.

Fueling much of that projected growth in Spokane is an increased number of convention bookings.

“We are really excited about the convention season coming in 2025,” Noble says. “We’re finally seeing a bounce-back from COVID.”

So far, 75 groups with a total of nearly 42,000 contracted convention attendees are scheduled to visit the region in 2025, and over 68,000 definite room nights are on the books, with room to add thousands more.

Through Oct. 31, there have been about 66,000 definite room nights. In 2019, prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the region had just over 50,000 definite room nights.

“2025 is actually very similar in comparison to 2022, which was a great convention year,” Noble says.

She explains, however, that the success in 2022 was due largely to rebooked conventions that were canceled during the pandemic.

While leisure travel is harder to predict, staple events, like Hoopfest and Bloomsday, as well as an expansive sports scene in Spokane also will contribute to the projected tourism growth, Noble says.

Spokane Sports will be supporting 57 events in Spokane County in 2025.

Ashley Blake, CEO of Spokane Sports, anticipates those events will bring 156,000 attendees to the market next year, with the average length of stay being 2.8 nights.

Although an end-of-year assessment hasn't been conducted yet to determine 2024 data, Blake told the Journal about a year ago that Spokane Sports was set to support 44 events in Spokane County in 2024, which were expected to bring in 117,000 attendees to the market.

“Our focus is on building a strong lineup of indoor track-and-field events, as they bring tourism to our market when our city needs it the most, in the winter months,” Blake says in an email to the Journal.

Blake says 13 track-and-field meets are scheduled for 2025.

Other notable sporting events include the USA Volleyball Pacific Northwest Qualifier, the USA Wrestling Women’s National Championships, and the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Tournament.

“Sports tourism continues to be a strong pillar for our community,” Blake says.

Optimism also surrounds the tourism industry in North Idaho, says Mark Robitaille, executive director at Visit Coeur d’Alene.

During Visit Coeur d’Alene’s current fiscal year, which began July 1, North Idaho lodging tax collections are up 2% compared with the year-earlier period, Robitaille says.

He expects that increase to remain steady into 2025.

The pandemic affected North Idaho’s tourism scene differently than it did Spokane County’s, Robitaille explains.

“During the pandemic, Idaho basically stayed open,” he says. “We saw amazing growth in two years straight.”

In 2020, North Idaho lodging tax collections increased by about 31%, and then in 2021, it rose another 26%, Robitaille says.

Since that massive increase during the pandemic, lodging tax collections have leveled off, increasing by about 1% each year.

“We saw a lot of repeat visits,” he contends.

He attributes the growth during the pandemic to other places, like Washington state, having stricter shutdown mandates.

He also says significant residential growth has factored into the increase.

To help maintain the growth experienced during the pandemic, Visit Coeur d’Alene has continued working with partner organizations like the Coeur d’Alene Resort, Silverwood Theme Park, Silver Mountain Resort, and the Coeur d’Alene Downtown Association to help market the area, Robitaille says.

“We’re optimistic with the upcoming year and years to come,” he adds.