Visitors and craft beverage aficionados will delight in the new Puget Sound Craft Beer Mobile Passport designed to celebrate our world-class craft brewing scene in the Puget Sound.  Beer lovers will have the opportunity to download the free mobile passport beginning June 1st and enjoy it throughout 2021.  Passport participants can use state-of-the-art interactive mobile passport technology with easy access on smart devices to automatically check-in via GPS and receive exclusive deals and ongoing incentives at 40+ Puget Sound breweries and cideries.

Visit Bellevue holds monthly Partner Meetups which are designed to educate and inform our partners and stakeholders how to maximize their many complimentary Visit Bellevue benefits and leverage these for their own marketing, sales and visitors experience efforts. For more information and to sign up for a future session ssteele@visitbellevuewa.com.

As the Pandemic recovery continues and a full unincumbered reopening is just days away, Visitors to Bellevue will have expanded dining options including these recently announced restaurant openings: Whiskey by John Howie is Bellevue’s newest whiskey and craft cocktail destination. Dough Zone Dumpling House has opened their newest Flagship Restaurant on Main Street in Bellevue, STK Steakhouse artfully blends the modern steakhouse and a chic lounge into one, offering a dynamic, fine dining experience with the superior quality of a traditional steakhouse located in. The new seafood restaurant Water Grill is coming to Bellevue Way offering offer up to 18 varieties of oysters every day and other popular seafood, Cantina Monarca is a modern take on traditional Mexican cuisine and an elevated tequila lounge featuring unique shared plates and specialty tequila & mezcal cocktails located in Lincoln Square 2. If you know of additional openings please send them to info@visitbellevuewa.com

U.S. maritime law requires international stops on ships flagged in foreign countries, which includes the major cruise lines' ships serving Alaska from Seattle. Passage of the law by Congress, the Senate, and the President will now allow cruise ships to sail to Alaska without requiring a stop in Canada, which currently has a ban on cruising, prohibiting such a stop, posed a major challenge to the tourism and cruise industry. With this enabling legislation and positive CDC cruise guidance, cruise lines have begun announcing sailings that visit Alaska including Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises, Norwegian Cruise Line and Carnival Corp. lines Princess Cruises, and Holland America Line have all announced plans to resume cruising this summer. See information and updates here.

The Greater Seattle Partners (GSP) in coordination with 200 regional community leaders in academia, business, government, and not-for-profit from Snohomish, King, and Pierce counties recently announced the launch of a new regional economic recovery framework to accelerate recovery from Covid-19 and build a more resilient, equitable and inclusive economy.

During the first week of May, Visit Bellevue celebrated National Travel & Tourism Week (May 2 – 8) and many industry members used the opportunity to message the value of travel + tourism to our community and stakeholders throughout Bellevue see content HERE. We featured content and messaging around restoring our economy, the value of in-person meetings and events for Bellevue, rehiring our workforce, and reconnecting people. We urge an ongoing continued understanding and recovery effort.