The Seattle Tourism Improvement Area (STIA) is a Business Improvement Area (BIA) formed in 2011 in accordance with Washington state law to establish a new leisure tourism marketing fund for Seattle. At its inception the BIA ordinance required that funds be spent solely on promoting leisure travel, focused on building business in need periods. In October 2023 a new ordinance was approved by the City of Seattle, changing the STIA assessment from a flat fee charge per occupied room to 2.3% of the nightly room charge, and opened up the use of the funds to promote Seattle as a destination for meetings and conventions as well as leisure travel.<\/p>\n
The STIA is overseen by an 11-member ratepayer advisory board and its day-to-day activities are managed by Visit Seattle.<\/p>\n