Tacoma’s tourist attractions don’t come cheap but they’re worth it

Even, or especially, in Tacoma’s less appealing phase a few decades back, the Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium was a tourism attraction that the citizenry could legitimately point to and say, “There, that’s a reason to come visit our city.”

The attractions were scant beyond that. The car and glass museums didn’t exist, Tacoma Art Museum was housed in a narrow former bank building, the state history museum was tucked away in a corner of the Stadium District and Pacific Avenue had a less-than-hospitable vibe to it.

There wasn’t much there there, and the things that drew a lot of people — the Puyallup Fair, Mount Rainier — weren’t actually in Tacoma.

Point Defiance — the zoo and aquarium as well as the surrounding park — was the notable exception.

It was more compact and walkable than Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo and it combined two attractions in one. Its focus on the fauna and fishies of the Pacific Rim, and some popular features — such as the floor-to-ceiling glass walls of the shark tank or the below-water-level viewing areas for seals and sea lions — made it feel like something more than just one zoo among many.

Now Point Defiance is unveiling its new Pacific Seas Aquarium, an addition to Tacoma’s portfolio of tourism attractions that is much enhanced with the Museum District and its components.

There’s a lot of municipal investment, public and private, tied up in those facilities, and if the question arises as to why spend that much money on some might see as luxuries, here are two responses.

One, museums and zoos and the like fall into the same category as parks, sports, recreation, the arts, even libraries: Maybe they’re not life essentials, but they make life more pleasant and interesting for those who live here. The big issue — and this usually comes up with pro-sports stadiums and arenas — is how much fun and entertainment a community can afford.

Two, and this is tied to the first point, tourism is (or can be) a big business. It’s an export you don’t have to pay to ship anywhere; the consumers, whether they’re from the next county or the next continent, pay for delivery by delivering themselves. They come, spend their money and go home. And if those visitors help pay for amenities the year-round residents enjoy, how great a deal is that?

Thus the opening of a major addition to one of the city’s leading tourism attractions is a significant business and economics story.

Tourism is a major industry in Western Washington, but just how big is a mystery.

The cruise ships that tie up in Seattle sure look like tourism. What about King County residents who make a day trip to Tacoma to visit the zoo or a museum? (Yes, denizens of Seattle, it really does happen — a lot.) Or come to Pierce County for a few hours because there’s a store, a restaurant or a brewpub they like?

Those are tourists too, and they’re of particular importance for the market niche Tacoma and Pierce County are targeting.

Seattle, by virtue of its size, its corporate base, its attractions and its history will always have an advantage in national and international name recognition. But Tacoma can do nicely for itself as a regional destination and by picking specialty markets.

That is, in fact, the strategy laid out in the 2018 plan issued by Travel Tacoma + Pierce County, the private non-profit designated as the official destination marketing organization for this area.

The plan lists two priorities for 2018: “To continue to strengthen perceptions of Pierce County as an authentic, artistically vibrant, approachable destination through the Northwest Unfiltered brand position; and secondly, in anticipation of two major golf resorts in development in Pierce County, Travel Tacoma is building our marketing footprint in the golf market.”

For 2019 and beyond? Continued success in tourism will depend on how well the local region executes on several fronts.

One is continuing to spruce up what it has, which is why Point Defiance’s new aquarium is a big deal. Another is adding to the portfolio of what Tacoma and Pierce County have to lure travelers. Perhaps a museum focused on the art, culture and history of Northwest Indians.

“We revere our industrial identity as we nod to the future,” Travel Tacoma’s plan says. The Foss Waterway Seaport (another recent addition to the local portfolio of attractions) is an important start in leveraging that industrial identity. Maybe there are some other opportunities.

Then it’s a matter of letting the world what’s here. Actually, you don’t need to tell the whole world; there are plenty of day and weekend trippers to be reached who don’t want to deal with the expense and hassle of getting to something in Seattle.

Thanks to all that investment in stuff for people to see and do in Tacoma, the region can build a true tourism industry by telling potential tourists, “It’s a nice place to live” — and be able to back it up.