Lane County Travel Spending Increased in 2024
September 23, 2025Preliminary data from research firm Dean Runyan Associates shows travel spending in Lane County rose to $1.4 billion in 2024 compared with $1.3 billion in 2023. The 2024 level is $0.4 billion above the county’s pre-pandemic level of $1.0 billion in 2019. However, on an inflation adjusted basis 2024 is only $70.1 million above the 2019 level.
The graph below shows that travel spending in Lane County grew throughout the 1990s and peaked in 2008 at $717.0 million. As the Great Recession took hold in 2009, travel spending dropped $39.7 million, or 5.5%, to reach $677.3 million. Since then, travel spending grew each year, topping $1 billion for the first time in 2018 and growing into 2019 before dropping to $566 million due to the pandemic.
The growth rate over the recovery period between 2009 and 2019 was 53.7%, which was well ahead of the U.S. inflation rate of 19.2%, showing that travel spending growth was strong before the pandemic, even adjusted for inflation.
Lane County had the second highest level of direct travel spending of Oregon’s 36 counties. Multnomah County was first with $4.2 billion and Deschutes was third with $1.1 billion.
The largest share of visitor spending by commodity in Lane County in 2024 was in food service (28.7%), followed by accommodations (22.7%); retail sales (12.0%); arts, entertainment, and recreation (10.4%); food stores (9.5%); local transportation and gas (8.7%); and visitor air transportation (7.9%). The largest increase in visitor spending between 2023 and 2024 was in accommodations (9.8%), while the least was in local transportation and gas (4.3%).
Most travel spending occurred in the eastern portion of the county, which includes the Eugene-Springfield area, at $1.1 billion (79.0%). The remaining $287.5 million of travel spending occurred in the coastal portion of the county.
Employment
Although it rebounded in the two years immediately after the pandemic, Lane County employment attributed to travel spending has not fully recovered to pre-pandemic levels and has slowly dropped in recent years. After dropping from 11,140 jobs in 2019 to 8,530 in 2020 for a loss of 23.4%, employment rose to 9,050 jobs in 2021. The job gains continued in 2022, adding 1,690 to reach 10,610. Employment has since had a small drop to 10,470 in 2024.
Lane County’s travel employment as a share of total employment was 5% 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 $52.9 million in 2024 in Lane County. Local tax revenue increased by 6.2% to reach $20.7 million while state tax revenue increased 4.2% to reach $32.2 million.
For the complete report go to Travel Impacts Oregon, 2024.