Douglas County Travel Spending Drops in 2024
September 23, 2025Preliminary data from research firm Dean Runyan Associates shows travel spending in Douglas County dropped to $316.2 million in 2024 compared to $319.0 million in 2023. The 2024 level is $63.6 million above the county’s 2019 pre-pandemic level of $252.6 million. However, on an inflation adjusted basis 2024 is only $420 thousand above the 2019 level.
The graph below shows that travel spending in Douglas County grew throughout the 1990s and peaked in 2008 at $216.4 million. As the Great Recession took hold in 2009, travel spending dropped $18.9 million, or 8.7%, to reach $197.5 million. Since then, travel spending has grown each year, reaching $252.6 million in 2019 before dropping due to the pandemic.
The growth rate over the recovery period between 2009 and 2019 was 55.1%, which was well ahead of the U.S. inflation rate of 19.2%, showing that travel spending growth was strong before the pandemic, even after adjusting for inflation.
Douglas County had the 11th highest level of direct travel spending of Oregon’s 36 counties in 2024. Multnomah County was first with $4.2 billion, and Lane County was second with $1.4 billion.
The largest share of visitor spending by commodity in Douglas County in 2024 was in food service (33.8%) followed by accommodations (18.0%); arts, entertainment, and recreation (14.1%); retail sales (13.1%); food stores (12.1%); and local transportation and gas (8.9%). The largest increase in visitor spending between 2023 and 2024 was in food service (2.9%) while the least was in local transportation and gas (-8.9%).
Most travel spending occurred in the eastern portion of the county, which includes the Roseburg area, at $244.5 million (77.3%). The remaining $71.7 million (22.7%) of travel spending occurred in the coastal portion of the county.
Employment
Douglas County employment attributed to travel spending follows a similar trend as travel spending. After dropping from 3,180 jobs in 2019 to 2,970 in 2020 for a loss of 6.6%, employment rebounded quickly to 3,180 jobs in 2021. The job gains continued through 2024 to reach 3,590 jobs, a gain of 20.9% since 2020.
Douglas County’s travel employment as a share of total employment was 7% in 2024. This compares with 2% for the Portland Region and 21% for the Oregon Coast Region.
Tax Revenue
Tax revenue, mostly in the form of lodging taxes and income taxes associated with the travel industry, totaled $11.9 million in 2024 in Douglas County. Local tax revenue increased by 0.2% to reach $2.2 million while state tax revenue increased 4.2% to reach $9.7 million.
For the complete report go to Travel Impacts Oregon, 2024.