SEATTLE -- This time of year is considered the off-season for tourism, but Seattle hopes to change that notion with a media blitz of West Coast cities.
Seattle's Convention and Visitors Bureau is rolling out a visible tourism campaign in San Francisco, Portland and Vancouver, BC called "2 Days in Seattle." The campaign shows off ways to spend time in Seattle with great food, wine, arts and music venues.
Posters, signs and billboards are getting wrapped around buses and going up transit stations in those cities.
"We're hopeful this year this kind of investment could bring in this year an additional half-million to a million visitors on top of what we might normally see in terms of overnight guests," said Tom Norwalk, SCVB President & CEO.
The media blitz costs about $1.5 million, but SCVB estimates the pay-off could mean an extra $30 million pumped into the local economy.
"We knew funding would always be an issue and certainly at the state level, we didn't know it would be quite as serious so quickly, so been at this for couple of years, we knew we had needed to more to keep Seattle healthy,” said Norwalk.
Because of budget cuts, the state folded its tourism department last year.
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