Leavenworth Area Promotions (LAP)

The Leavenworth Area Promotions Group works to maintain Leavenworth’s continued success through promotions and by fostering the community’s tourism industry.

LAP History & Committee Structure

Leavenworth Area Promotions was created in the mid-1990’s when the State allowed certain cities to raise the lodging tax collected at the local level. In order to specifically advertise and market the town of Leavenworth, the City (at the request of the Leavenworth Lodging Association) adopted a local 1% lodging tax in 1993 before increasing it to 3% in 1997.

A separate committee also administered the 1960’s era 2% Kingdome lodging tax which cities could use for tourism infrastructure. In 2000, the state no longer required two separate committees to oversee the distinction between the state 2% tourism infrastructure tax and our local 3% marketing and promotions tax.

In 2001 the City of Leavenworth, the Leavenworth Lodging Association and the Chamber of Commerce entered into a multi-agency agreement to create the LAP Committee to manage and administer the funds allotted for marketing and promotions.

The LAP committee is made up of representation from the following groups:

Three (3) board members from the Leavenworth Chamber of Commerce
Three (3) members from the Leavenworth Lodging Association
Two (2) mayor appointed Leavenworth City Council Members

The work of LAP is executed and facilitated by the Chamber’s Marketing & PR Director and Executive Director.

Goal & Execution

LAP’s goal is to support tourism and lodging and aims to foster longer, meaningful guest stays.

LAP funding is about 15% of the approximately $4.3 million generated by the hotel lodging tax, collected from visitors who stay within the city limits of Leavenworth.

The committee also works to establish continual top of mind presence in the marketplace, strengthen soft seasons and reach midweek travelers.

The Chamber staff works year-round in coordination with the LAP Committee to set advertising schedules for a variety of media, communicate and hire PR firms for specific projects and pitch the Leavenworth experience to various marketing partners and media outlets.