It's almost the tourism season in the Yakima Valley. Thousands of tourists spend time and money in the Yakima Valley during the summer months and officials at Yakima Valley Tourism say it's expected to be another successful year.

PEOPLE ARE LOOKING FOR PLACES TO RELAX LIKE YAKIMA

Tourism officials say following the pandemic a lot of people are back traveling again. In Fact information from the State of Washington Tourism shows "Yakima County, visitor spending last year grew 12% to $385 million, directly supporting 3,345 jobs. A press release from Yakima Valley Tourism says "to give a balanced, post-COVID perspective, 2022 visitor spending exceeded 2019 visitor spending by 11%."

HOW CAN YOU HELP GROW TOURISM IN THE YAKIMA VALLEY?

They add tourism spending in "Yakima County last year generated $38 million in state and local taxes saving each household $446 in taxes last year.
The report says visitors made 2.3 million trips to the valley. So how can you help? You can invite friends from other parts of the state or the country to visit Yakima and enjoy the many things the valley has to offer.

MANY FIND PEACE AND RELAXATION IN YAKIMA

Many visitors say a visit to the valley helps them reconnect and get away from traffic, crowds and other things many deal with in larger cities.
And while people visited the valley a lot of people also checked out the valley on Yakima Tourism websites. The report says there were 454,387 sessions on tourism websites which they say is a 46% increase over 2021.

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