By ANDREW SIMPSON
Ward Media Staff Reporter
CHELAN — Chelan business owners and representatives are asking the city to substantially increase its investment in tourism marketing, pointing to declining sales, a weakening shoulder season and a summer in which wildfire smoke exposed the vulnerability of the city’s visitor-dependent economy.
Representatives of the Historic Downtown Chelan Association and several local businesses made the case to the Chelan City Council Aug. 25, asking the city to increase funding for the Lake Chelan Chamber of Commerce as it begins looking toward its 2027 budget.
“Whether we like it or not, tourism is downtown Chelan’s bread and butter,” HDCA Director Aimee Sheridan said.
Sheridan said some downtown businesses saw sales fall 40% to 60% compared with the same period last year as smoke reduced visitation in recent weeks. But she and other speakers stressed that the problem did not begin with the smoke.
Sheridan cited Washington Main Street studies and Mastercard data showing that only 14% of downtown Chelan retail sales come from local residents, with 86% coming from outside the Chelan Valley.
“Shop local and tourism aren’t in competition,” Sheridan said. “There’s absolutely a place for them to work together.”
HDCA is working to strengthen year-round local support for downtown businesses, Sheridan said, but local spending alone cannot replace visitor spending or the tax revenue it generates.
She asked the city to increase its investment in the Chamber, which serves as the area’s destination marketing organization, noting its contract has not increased in recent years as marketing costs have risen.
Eric Campbell of Campbell’s Resort joined that request, calling for a multi-year funding agreement and a substantial increase in the city’s tourism marketing investment.
Campbell said the resort, now in its 125th year as a family business, employs between 145 and 225 people annually. Chelan’s peak tourism season lasts fewer than 80 days, he said, making disruptions during summer particularly damaging.
“No business is getting that loss of summer revenue back,” Campbell said. “There’s no business interruption insurance for air quality.”
But Campbell said the longer-term trend is more concerning. Campbell’s spring business has declined about 10% annually from 2023 to 2026, primarily in meeting and group business.
“The canary in the coal mine has always been the off-season,” Campbell said. “We pay close attention to every month of the year. We don’t overreact to one bad month or even one down year.”
He pointed to Leavenworth as Chelan’s primary regional competitor and said it invests more than twice as much in destination promotion.
“We cannot expect to promote at the same level while investing at half that level,” Campbell said.
The comparison with Leavenworth surfaced repeatedly during the comments. Campbell described it as Chelan’s biggest regional competitor and said Leavenworth spends more than twice as much on destination promotion. Adam Rynd later pointed to reports of declining tourism traffic there as evidence that even a heavily marketed destination is facing a tougher visitor economy, arguing that Chelan risks losing ground if it does not compete for a shrinking or increasingly selective pool of travelers.
Campbell asked the city to put more of its available 3% lodging tax revenue toward Chamber marketing, describing the money as a visitor-generated resource that can be reinvested in generating future visitation.
Rynd, owner and designated broker of Coldwell Banker Cascade Real Estate and an owner of several other local businesses, said the slowdown is showing up across multiple sectors.
His retail businesses are down about 20% to 30% compared with prior years, while the real estate market has seen higher inventory, longer market times and substantially fewer transactions, according to Rynd.
That decline extends beyond real estate offices, he said, because home sales generate business for contractors, landscapers, lenders, title companies, retailers, restaurants and other local businesses.
“When local spending slows, visitor spending helps fill the gap,” Rynd said. “Visitors stay in our hotels, shop in our stores, dine in our restaurants, visit our wineries, and support many, many local jobs.”
Molly Hill, co-owner of Layla’s Bar + Kitchen and an HDCA board member, said her business is seeing a roughly 20% decline, while tips have fallen 30% to 35% during the summer months.
Hill said she and her husband, Derek, rely on the Chamber’s collective marketing, particularly during the off-season, and said continued declines could threaten their ability to maintain year-round employees.
“The alternative to that, which we’ve been discussing right now, is that it really turns into my husband and I,” Hill said.
Council members did not take action on the request, which came during the public comment portion of the meeting, but several returned to the issue during their closing comments.
Outgoing councilmember Terry Sanders said the business community is clearly hurting and suggested the city consider how its marketing dollars are targeted, including potential advertising in Spokane and Coeur d’Alene, where visitors would not have to cross a mountain pass to reach Chelan.
Mayor Erin McCardle said the testimony should be treated as a warning that extends beyond the immediate effects of wildfire smoke.
“Our local business community is so self-sufficient and just put their heads down and get things done,” McCardle said. “We don’t often see them in council until things are starting to move in a really wrong direction or they need help.”
McCardle said the decline has been building since 2023.
“The red flag has been raised,” she said, “and I think we all need to recognize and listen to their concerns because it’s been building.”
Andrew Simpson: 509-433-7626 or andrew@ward.media
