Newly released tourism reporting data show that 2024 was a defining year for La Conner’s visitor economy.

According to state lodging and event reports, La Conner recorded 157,056 paid lodging nights in 2024, nearly double the 76,617 nights reported in 2019, the last full year before the pandemic. It is the highest annual lodging total in more than a decade of available data.

At the same time, total reported attendance reached 725,806 visitors.

Those numbers tell two parallel stories: the enduring strength of the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival — and signs that overnight visitation is expanding beyond it.

Tulip Festival: the cornerstone

The Skagit Valley Tulip Festival continues to anchor La Conner’s tourism year.

In 2024, 450,000 visits were attributed to Tulip Festival activity connected to La Conner — the highest Tulip allocation in the past decade. Previous high-water marks were 385,000 in 2019 and 350,000 in 2014.

Tulip season remains the single largest draw, shaping spring business activity across lodging, retail, dining and waterfront attractions.

Of the 157,056 lodging nights recorded in 2024, 67,588 were associated with Tulip reporting, underscoring the festival’s continued role in filling rooms and driving early-season travel.

The festival is not just a spike in foot traffic — it remains a core economic engine for the town.

Beyond tulips: a growing overnight pattern

But 2024’s data show that the story does not end in April.

Even excluding Tulip attendance, La Conner recorded 275,806 non-festival visits, the highest non-Tulip year in the dataset. From 2016 through 2019, non-Tulip attendance generally ranged between 135,000 and 170,000 annually. In 2024, that figure was 62% higher than 2019 levels.

Lodging data reflect a similar pattern. Of the 157,056 total lodging nights in 2024, roughly 89,000 nights were tied to non-tulip activity — more than the town recorded in total annual lodging in most pre-pandemic years.

Tourism funding awarded to La Conner projects increased to $312,645 in 2024, nearly double the prior year. Actual lodging nights exceeded projections by nearly 33%, indicating stronger-than-expected overnight demand.

Statewide context

The local trends mirror findings from the State of Washington Tourism’s FY2024 Advertising Effectiveness Research, which reported that travelers influenced by the state’s campaign stayed longer and participated in more activities across the state.

The statewide campaign ran year-round for the first time, generating 77,000 incremental trips and $103.5 million in visitor spending.

While that research measures Washington as a whole, La Conner’s 2024 data suggest that longer stays and broader activity patterns are visible locally as well.

A tourism story in two parts

Taken together, the numbers show a two-part tourism economy:

• A powerful spring surge driven by the Tulip Festival. • A steadily expanding pattern of visitation across the rest of the year.

Tulips remain the headline event. But the growth in overnight stays — both during and beyond festival season — suggests that more visitors are choosing to spend additional time in La Conner.

Whether 2024 marks a new baseline or an exceptional year will become clearer when 2025 reporting is released.