On the West Coast trail of swashbuckling backpackers, Portland often seems to be an afterthought. Intrepid travelers swing by, sometimes on a bus a hostel Seattle WA provides, or up from San Francisco. It seems to be a good stopping point, but isn’t usually the end all, be all destination for these travelers. Is it because Portland isn’t as large as our West Coast brethren or is it due to the fact we don’t do enough to court in their business?
There are plenty of internationally educated residents of Portland, so it seems surprising that an area of this size only has a few Portland hostels. Unfortunately, most of them seem only half filled (usually by American travelers). All the hostels Seattle has to offer appear constantly booked. I wonder if this is, in part, due to the lack of other cheap accommodation offerings in Seattle?
Regardless, I believe Portland, and the state, should to do more to entice travelers both home and abroad. A recent study showed that Oregon’s top attraction are the Woodburn Company Stores. It beat out Crater Lake, Multnomah Falls and all other state parks. It’s sad that shopping draws more travelers than our natural beauty. With all the things this area as to offer, I wish we would do more to tell other people about it.
I know there are people that want Portland to stay a secluded little secret, and I certainly don’t want to see the area grow to the size of other large cities. However, I would like for travelers to return to wherever they came from and say, you know what, I found the most beautiful place in the world - and you’ll never guess where it is.
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Rhondad, I see what you mean, but more people means more growth. Just as your parents came here, so do others want to and so it will continue to happen. Consequences are both good and not so good. I’ve been here just a little over 2 years, and have noticed the increase in traffic, housing costs, unemployment - but not in businesses to balance this imbalance. Hopefully, Portland will work on a vision that embraces a climate to sustain population growth with its natural climate that attracts people to live in its awesome beauty.
I agree with you Mary..but, that hasn’t been happening as you’ve noticed. Salaries and business growth is not keeping up with the increase in people relocating. We can only hope that the city planners and government start to better understand this discrepancy and change some of their tax laws to encourage companies to headquarter here.
While your comments are very true in some ways.. I think you have to understand for those of us who have lived in the area for quite a while (22 years in my case) we have seen the Portland metro grow by leaps and bounds. This has created horrific traffic (compared to what we were used to), skyrocketing houses costs and more crime while increasing unemployment. Certainly there are good things about growth as well, and being a transplant myself I can’t say much (although I was basically just drug here by my parents when I was still a teenager!)but I think people who like living in a city the size of Portland are not wishing to court more business.
I do agree that having the outlets be considered the number one sight is a travesty and am glad to see many travel articles in major publications lately who are giving information on the art side of the city, or our proximity to all the natural wonders of both the coast AND the mountains, etc. However, I do fear this will just bring even more people to have a desire to relocate.
But hey, it is better than back in the 80’s where our major tourist campaign actually basicaly said “come and visit but don’t stay”!