After COVID-19 shut down travel, the cruise season, and conventions in 2020, the newest report from the industry association Visit Seattle shows the start of a wide rebound. In 2021, the situation scarcely improved.

Hotel occupancy rates in downtown Seattle were nearly 68 percent in April this year, after being in the single digits during the worst of the pandemic. The Seattle Convention Center expects 25 reservations this year after 98 conferences were canceled since early 2020, resulting in a $723 million loss in spending.

According to AAA, Seattle will be the second most popular Memorial Day destination in the United States.

The Port of Seattle expects 295 cruise ship sailings this year, with an estimated 1.26 million passengers transiting through the two cruise ship ports. This year, there will be more ships sailing to Alaska. In 2021, on the other hand, the Port witnessed 82 cruise calls after implementing some COVID safety standards.

All of this is taking place despite rising inflation, which is wreaking havoc on wages, as well as environmental worries about the business.

Unlike areas like Florida and the Southwest (especially my hometown of Phoenix), Seattle isn't entirely reliant on tourism. "Seattle Freeze" residents are unconcerned about visitors and are unaware that their city is a big tourist attraction. Some people despise cruise ships in particular, exclaiming, "Stay away from my city!"

However, tourism is a huge business in this town. In April, the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metropolitan area employed over 181,000 individuals in the leisure and hospitality industry. This figure is still lower than the 209,000 recorded before the epidemic in February 2020, but it is steadily increasing. And this figure excludes other occupations that rely on the money spent by travelers, such as those in restaurants and tour buses, as well as those in retail.

People come to see the Space Needle, the Monorail, and Seattle Center, as well as Pike Place Market, the Museum of Pop Culture, the Seattle Art Museum, the Seattle Aquarium, the Seattle Great Wheel, Pioneer Square, the Ballard Locks, sporting events, and world-famous restaurants. Not to mention the beautiful summer weather while the rest of the country is sweltering.

Seattle's economy is more diverse than that of several other major tourist destinations, therefore it is less reliant on that one sector. In comparison to Phoenix, Las Vegas, San Diego, and Orlando, Florida, it's similar to New York City, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles.

Tourism is also a relatively young important industry in this country (I believe it dates back to the Century 21 World's Fair).

Phoenix coined the term "Valley of the Sun" to attract tourists long before it was the country's fifth most populated city, as part of its comeback from the Great Depression (1930 population 48,000). It was a huge success, especially in the winter.

Seattle, which had a thriving port, railroads, shipbuilding, and canneries at the time, was on its way to becoming Jet City thanks to Boeing. Then there's Big Tech.

"Tourists?" says a character in the 1948 film "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre." We don't need any more tourists!" However, we do.

In this era of human-caused climate change, tourism has enormous drawbacks. Airplanes and automobiles emit a significant amount of greenhouse gases.

Cruise ships have been accused of a slew of environmental issues. Thousands of liters of sewage and other pollutants are discharged from each ship (Washington prohibits this within 12 miles of shore).

The Port of Seattle has a variety of efforts in place to reduce cruise ships' environmental effects. In a recent report, the Cruise Lines International Association committed to reducing its carbon footprint by 40% by 2030 and achieving carbon-neutral by 2050 by employing alternative fuels, newer ships, and sophisticated technologies.

Carnival Corporation, Royal Caribbean Cruises, Norwegian Cruise Line, and the Seattle-based Holland America Line are also members of the trade association. However, the report makes no mention of how many of the remaining issues will be resolved.

It's no surprise that Key West, Florida, enacted a permanent ban on large ships in 2020.

It is a global challenge. "Available data suggest that a large cruise ship can have a carbon footprint greater than 12,000 cars," according to a 2021 analysis from the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom. Passengers on an Antarctic trip can emit as much CO2 in seven days as the average European does in a year."