As the City’s liaison to the sports, travel, and tourism industries, the Spectator Venues Program works with partners to attract events and promote Portland as a destination.
Bringing visitors to Portland creates jobs, boosts spending at local businesses and supports community investments.
Portland's hotel industry employed nearly 35,000 people in 2025, providing living-wage jobs and career growth opportunities to a diverse cross-section of Portlanders. Out-of-town visitors spent $5.5 billion at local businesses, fueling the economy. Lodging taxes contributed $23.7 million to the City of Portland's General Fund during the 2023-2025 fiscal year, supporting community services such as parks and public safety.
Lodging taxes
When visitors stay at hotels or short-term rentals in Portland, they pay 13% lodging taxes—$13 for each night at a $100 hotel room.
- 5% goes to the City of Portland's General Fund, which supports community services such as parks, fire, and transportation.
- 1% goes to Travel Portland, the region's leading tourism organization, to promote Portland.
- 5.5% supports programs associated with the Oregon Convention Center and other regional tourism facilities, the Visitor Facilities Trust Account, arts and culture programs, and the Visitors Development Board. During the 2019-2020 fiscal year, an amendment to the Visitor Facilities Intergovernmental Agreement between the City of Portland, Multnomah County, and Metro committed resources to improve Veterans Memorial Coliseum and the Portland’5 performing arts venues.
- 1.5% goes to the Oregon Tourism Commission to fund Travel Oregon.
Tourism Improvement District
Portland’s Tourism Improvement District collects an additional 3% fee on overnight stays at hotels and vacation rentals, which is typically passed along to guests. With oversight from the lodging community, Travel Portland invests revenue to promote Portland as a destination.
At the request of the hotel industry, the Portland City Council created the Tourism Improvement District in 2012 and set the additional fee at 2%. Since then, industry partners have requested several modifications to the fee which City Council approved in 2016, 2021, and 2023. The current fee is set at 3% and does not require periodic sunset review. City Code Section 6.05 regulates the Tourism Improvement District. The City’s Revenue Division administers the collection and remittance of the fee along with other lodging taxes.
Sports Tourism and Promotion
The City also partners with Sport Oregon to provide marketing and promotional services to bring sporting events to Portland, specifically to City-owned venues such as Moda Center, Providence Park, and the Veterans Memorial Coliseum.