Attendees walk the boardwalk toward the Washington State International Kite Festival last year in Long Beach. Uncertainty surrounds this year’s outlook for the hospitality sector.

PACIFIC COUNTY — The data is in, and local municipalities in 2024 largely continued a streak of strong sales and lodging tax collections that’s been observed in the post-pandemic era — one indicator that can be used to gauge the strength of the area’s economy.

In Long Beach, where lodging tax collections are greater than in neighboring Ilwaco and unincorporated Pacific County combined, the city brought in nearly $1.2 million. That figure is down a bit from the $1.3 million yearly average over the four-year period from 2021-24, but still up nearly 60% from the $739,000 annual average from 2016-19.

Sales tax revenue has also risen solidly in the city since the pandemic-fueled disruption that hit cities and the county’s budget hard in 2020, landing just shy of $900,000 last year — almost exactly on par with the 2021-24 average and up about 50% from 2016-19.

All dollar amounts are not adjusted for inflation, which was 2.9% nationally in 2024.

Beyond Long Beach

The same trend has mostly been observed in both Ilwaco and Pacific County’s unincorporated areas such as Ocean Park, Seaview, Naselle and north county communities aside from Raymond and South Bend.

Sales taxes in Ilwaco clocked in at nearly $295,000 last year, better than the four-year average of $263,000 post-2020. In unincorporated Pacific County, sales tax collections edged above $3.05 million in 2024, up slightly from the 2021-24 annual average of $2.99 million.

County lodging tax revenue ended up at almost $780,000 last year, just a tad above the four-year, post-pandemic average of $774,000. In Ilwaco, 2024 lodging tax collections hit nearly $65,000, down somewhat from the $73,000 annual average from 2021-24 but still above any recent pre-2020 year and exceeding the $60,000 threshold set by city officials.

“At the end of Q3 2024 we weren’t sure we would collect that much but it did come through by year end,” said Ilwaco City Administrator Holly Beller. “I would guess that we might see the same for this year, and that we will meet the $60,000.”

Economic backsliding

With signs of the country facing economic headwinds — the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta estimated earlier this month that national real gross domestic product (GDP) will contract by more than 2% in the first quarter of 2025 — local officials are unsure how 2025 will pan out.

“Our original thoughts were that 2025 was projected to be similar in revenue to 2024,” said Long Beach Deputy City Administrator Ariel Smith, “but along with the rest of the country we are uncertain with how the economy will shake out in 2025 and how that will affect consumers and the travel industry.”

Smith said collections for the early months of 2025 have been in line with what the city saw in 2024, but noted the figures are reported to local governments from the Washington State Department of Revenue two months after the collection occurred. Figures from DOR that were reported to Long Beach this February, for example, are based on collections from December 2024.

“We will just wait and see what this year has to bring,” Smith said.