Downtown Dashboard
May 2026 (April data)
DSA publishes a monthly dashboard examining dozens of key metrics that affect our urban core’s vitality and local economy. The data sets provide a comparison point to the same period in 2019. Additionally, the dashboard will feature notable stories that provide context regarding downtown’s health and progress.
Please credit the Downtown Seattle Association’s Downtown Dashboard for use of charts, data and images on this page.
Unique monthly visitors compared to 2019
More than 2.8 million unique visitors came downtown in April 2026. This represents 104% of the visitors seen in April 2019 and a 5% increase from April 2025.
Average weekday worker foot traffic
In April, downtown’s worker foot traffic was 60% of April 2019’s daily average. Worker foot traffic in April saw a 6% decrease year over year following a 5% YOY decrease seen in March, likely due to a decrease in downtown jobs.
Monthly hotel rooms sold compared to 2019
More than 345,000 downtown hotel rooms were sold in April 2026. This figure represents 102% of the demand in April 2019, and a 4% increase in demand compared to April 2025, a positive indicator as cruise and tourism seasons get underway.
Quarterly
In March, the number of occupied apartment units downtown continued growing, rising to nearly 61,500. This represents a 2% increase compared to Q1 2025 and a nearly 30% increase compared to Q1 2019.
Of Note in Downtown
According to Datafy, consumers spent an estimated $418.6 million downtown in Q1 2026, 17% higher than the amount spent in Q1 2025.
Specialty retail (non-department store retail) was the fastest-growing consumer spending category. Datafy indicates Q1 2026 specialty retail was 106% higher than Q1 2025.
The DSA/MID Clean Team collected 90,116 gallons of trash from downtown sidewalks, curblines and alleys in April, about 5% higher than the previous month.
As the cruise season commenced in April, there were 165,409 visits to the central waterfront area that includes Piers 62 and 58, the Overlook Walk and Seattle Aquarium. This represents an 8% increase from April 2025.
Coming Up in Downtown
A new and improved Westlake Park will officially open to the public on Thursday, May 28. New lighting, new plantings and more open space for events and installations await park patrons. The park’s ribbon cutting at 5 p.m. will feature live music, food trucks and more.
Memorial Day Weekend brings the 55th Annual Northwest Folklife Festival to Seattle Center. Music, dance, food and family-friendly hands-on activities, storytelling, a fashion show and some 200 vendors fill the park May 22–25.
The Seattle Storm embark on back-to-back two-game homestands. They host the Connecticut Sun May 20 and May 22, followed by matchups with the Washington Mystics May 24 and May 27.
Notes on Sources
Datafy measures consumer spending by analyzing a cross‑section of credit and debit card transactions and cell phone location data.
Downtown foot traffic data are provided by Placer.ai and are based on cell phone location data. Each person is counted once per day. International visitors are not included. Subsets of this data in the charts are as follows:
- Office worker presence is estimated based on visits by workers who were present between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. on weekdays in downtown Seattle.*
- Hotel data are based on monthly reports from STR, provided by Visit Seattle.
- Apartment occupancy data are from CoStar. This is reported quarterly but the current quarter data are updated in real-time as new information is added to the database.
- Domestic visitors counts those who do not live or work downtown.
- Total foot traffic includes all visits to downtown by domestic visitors, residents and workers.
- Pike Place Market visitors includes domestic visitors who do not live or work at the Pike Place Market.
*Note that workers who have not visited their work site in the past 90 days are classified as “visitors” until they are regularly visiting their work site at least three times in a one-week period.