Tourism Advisory Committee

ACTION MINUTES LYNNWOOD TOURISM ADVISORY COMMITTEE Lynnwood Development & Business Services February 12, 2026, | 8:00 AM 1. Call to Order Tourism Manager Bush called the meeting to order at 8:00 A.M. 2. Roll Call 2.A Roll Call Committee Members Present: Committee Members Absent: Chairperson Isabel Mata Committee Member Anthony Angel Committee Member Chip Peterson Committee Member Leilani Kamala Staff: Committee Member Janet Pope Tourism Manager Ryan Bush Committee Member Frank Percival Development & Business Services Director Ben Committee Member Jerry Irwin Wolters Committee Member Brian Pouch 3. Approval of Minutes 3.A Approval of Minutes, December 11, 2025 Committee Member Pope motioned to approve the minutes as written and was seconded by Committee Member Peterson. 4. Public Comments There were no public comments during this meeting. 5. Reports from Committee Members 5.A Committee Member Reports Committee Member Pope informed the committee that they are working on a summer concert series that would feature a weekly concert during the duration of the World Cup. She also shared that the hiring for the Master Plan has gone very well, and it includes several people who worked on the Seattle Convention Center. The next step is working on the schematic design. Development & Business Services Director Wolters emphasized that he agrees that the team that Pope assembled is top-notch and will be a great asset in the development of the Master Plan. Pope noted that the general excitement about the project is picking up outside  of Lynnwood, and that many interested parties have started contacting them following an article about it in the Puget Sound Business Journal. Committee Member Peterson shared that hotel rates and occupancy were down in December, and that 2025 was a hard year in general for hotels. Seattle’s market specifically was impacted by the reduction in travel from Canada, Europe, and Asia. There is some optimism for 2026 based on current numbers, but last year was notably down compared to what they expected based off the growth leading up to 2024. Committee Member Kamala shared that their hotel numbers were notably lower in Q1 – Q3 of 2025 due to the Boeing strikes, but that Q4 saw the numbers rebound once the strikes ended. They also had an influx of CLC Red Cross volunteers stay to assist with the floods. Their hotels in Seattle and Bellevue specifically are seeing reservations coming in for the FIFA World Cup, though the hotels that are further out from Seattle aren’t seeing many reservations related to the World Cup quite yet. Committee Member Irwin reported that the mall had a successful Q4 for 2025 with holiday sale numbers. There have been several new store openings in the mall that went well, they’ve started construction on spaces for a couple of other tenants, plus there are some groups that are actively interested in the other vacant spaces. Committee Member Percival shared that Lynnwood Chamber will send a beta test for the Lynnwood Events and Experiences map to their board and ambassadors later in February. In addition, he will be sending a letter to all Lynnwood businesses and nonprofits to ask if they would like to be activated for something related to the World Cup and, if so, that they would receive free promotion of the related event or sale on the Lynnwood Events and Experiences map. The committee discussed the challenges of high-volume events in Seattle when it comes to Lynnwood City Center Station and the light rail. They have observed issues with parking capacity for events on weekdays, select businesses towing cars that park on their property, and the light rail itself filling up and leading to long wait- times at the stations for riders. Potential solutions are complicated due to existing laws and interests of property owners. Wolters suggested connecting with rideshare companies to communicate about events that may bring more potential riders to the area. He also pointed out that some of their ideas would likely require legislative action to be implemented, should they decide to pursue those options. 6. Resolutions and Action Items There were no resolutions or actions items for this meeting. 7. Staff Reports  7.A Tourism Funding Bills Tourism Manager Bush brought a few tourism bills to the committee’s attention that are currently moving through legislature. House Bill 2325 would create a statewide tourism self-supported assessment program to fund tourism promotion in Washington. Committee Member Pope added that this bill would help attract and fund movies that are filmed in the state. Bush also discussed House Bill 2278, which would remove the expiration date for the Tourism Promotion Area (TPA) assessment program and would allow the County to continue collecting the current per night lodging assessment. The last bill Bush brought up was House Bill 2559, which would allow counties and states to impose a new tax on short-term rental lodging and would fund affordable housing programs. Development & Business Services Director Wolters mentioned that there is another bill that he thought the committee should be aware of, which could create an exemption within the City’s tax implementation area and eliminate anticipated revenue to fund for planned city projects. 7.B 2025 Annual Report Tourism Manager Bush presented a 2025 Tourism Performance Report to the committee to use as they begin discussions about the budget for 2027-2028. Some highlights that were noted while going over the report include: • Overall, Lynnwood’s tourism trends matched Snohomish County’s in 2025. • Lynnwood is the top zip code for overnight visitors in Snohomish County. • Online marketing effectiveness for Lynnwood tourism was higher than the industry average. • Canadian operators reported that they cancelled 90% of their 2025 summer contracts due to political conditions. • The 2025 Lynnwood Dining Month was very successful, and all participating restaurants were interested in joining the campaign again. Due to budget constraints, it will not likely take place in 2026, but Bush is exploring ways to fund the campaign in the future. • Marketing on social media, specifically Instagram, saw a substantial increase in reach and impressions, which also led to an increase of followers (752% on Instagram alone). Partnering with influencers and posting videos was an important contributing factor in those increases. • AI will impact online marketing methods and effectiveness, particularly with website visits driven through online searches as more people lean into the AI summaries for quick answers. 8. General Discussion 8.A Q1 Tourism Meetup Tourism Manager Bush shared that the next Tourism Meetup will take place on February 26th, 2026, at 10:00am. It will be a continuation of the previous meetup, with the goal of learning about the barriers the participants are navigating in their efforts to book rooms. Adjournment The meeting was adjourned at 9:22 A.M. Next Meeting: The next meeting is scheduled for April 9, 2026