Seattle Magazine: Downtown Seattle inches closer to pre-pandemic levels

This story was originally published by Seattle Magazine on Nov. 19, 2024.

By Rob Smith

Continual monthly increases in downtown Seattle foot traffic have retailers and other downtown businesses excited as the holiday shopping season kicks off.

At 2.9 million people, October marked the highest level of visitor foot traffic since March 2020, according to the Downtown Seattle Association (DSA). More than 93,000 workers came downtown on average every weekday, also the highest since March 2020.

Perhaps even more important: The city is getting safer. The DSA says that Seattle police data shows violent crime plunged 52% in the downtown area between July and October as the Downtown Activation Team began focusing its efforts in the area starting in September. There was also a 44% drop in graffiti tags and stickers removed in October compared to September.

Downtown hotels were also packed in October. Visit Seattle says almost 380,000 hotel room were sold last month, the sixth-consecutive month where hotel demand exceeded that from the same time frame in 2019.