The Seattle Convention Center’s mission for operations, guided by its Board of Directors, is to provide both direct and indirect economic benefits and jobs to Washington State, King County and the City of Seattle. While this is not a topic most Washington residents ponder, the Center believes it is important to understand how its operations provide economic benefits for everyone in the region.
 
When convention attendees come here, they spend money on travel, lodging, meals, retail, and extended tourist activities, paying sales and hotel taxes on these expenditures. National conventions draw thousands of attendees to Seattle and, with two buildings in operation, will draw even more. Since opening in 1988, SCC has held over 11,954 events with a total attendance of more than 13,797,197 individuals (through 2024). Each person attending an SCC event directly contributes to the economy as they spend money in the community. To date, it is estimated out-of-state event attendees have spent over $8.2 billion. This spending keeps many of our businesses healthy and thousands of our citizens gainfully employed.

In addition to spurring a great amount of economic activity, most of this attendee spending is subject to retail sales tax. Generating money for the operation of state and local governments without imposing additional taxes on state residents is a goal shared by many. In a state such as Washington, heavily reliant on sales taxes, national conventions become the taxpayer’s best friend. These short-term visitors do not put their children in our schools or consume significant amounts of other governmental services. The sales taxes they pay become in effect net income for state and local governments. The impact of SCC on our governments’ budgets is clear: in 2024, sales tax collections associated with SCC operations was estimated to be in excess of $49 million, calculated on spending by out-of-state attendees only.    

In the years ahead, the combined operations of the Summit and Arch buildings will continue to serve as a powerful economic engine for everyone in our region.  Working as a team with Visit Seattle and the hotel community, the Center will attract the most lucrative conventions and meetings, fitting the clients’ programs into the facility in the most effective and efficient way.  Each of those events will bring economic activity, tax collections, and employment opportunities to our community, as the Seattle Convention Center continues to fulfill its economic mission.

For more information about SCC finances, please visit https://seattleconventioncenter.com/finances.