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The Mountain, City, Sea for your next meeting

When you pack a national park mountain, a metropolitan city, and a wide-open sea and waterfront into one destination, whether you’re talking to meeting delegates or leisure travelers, you’re offering something rare, if not unique, in the United States. It’s a destination built to inspire.

Since you last saw us, we’ve built skyline-changing infrastructure to make holding a meeting in Tacoma an even easier choice. The new Marriott Tacoma Downtown recently opened, adding 304 guest rooms and just over 20,000 square feet of meeting space to the downtown core, with the largest ballroom being 10,500 square feet. Much of the hotel, including the rooftop outdoor events center’s 6,500 square feet, features views of Mount Rainier, downtown Tacoma, and the Salish Sea.

Combined with the Hotel Murano, Courtyard Marriott, Holiday Inn Express & Suites, and Silver Cloud Inn Tacoma Waterfront, downtown Tacoma offers more than a thousand convention-ready rooms near the convention center.

What this really means is convenience for the meeting planner, and for attendees.

Located just 18 miles south of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, a meeting attendee’s Tacoma experience often starts at the Greater Tacoma Convention Center (GTCC) located downtown. It’s the city’s largest meetings venue, with 119,000 square feet of meeting and exhibition space, sweeping views of the Salish Sea and Mount Rainier, and only a couple walkable blocks from the Museum District, dozens of restaurants and bars, and several hotels. Making downtown Tacoma feel even more compact is the free-to-ride Tacoma Link Light Rail, which runs through the center of downtown, seamlessly and safely connecting attendees to even more attractions, performing arts, restaurants, taprooms and museums.

Tacoma’s thriving Museum District lets attendees wander amongst six world-class museums just a few minutes’ walk from the GTCC, and features a constantly refreshed stream of historical, nautical, automotive and artistic exhibitions. As the hometown of glass-art legend Dale Chihuly, art is in Tacoma’s DNA, and the Museum District contains not one, but two art museums: The Museum of Glass and Tacoma Art Museum. Meeting planners consider these perfect venues for welcome receptions or off-site events when using the GTCC, and attendees love to explore the Chihuly Bridge of Glass, a 500-foot pedestrian overpass with 2,364 pieces of Chihuly’s glass artwork which connect the two museums.

Since many attendees spend their breaks between meetings with the waterfront and Salish Sea on one side and Mount Rainier towering over the city on the other, pre- and post- trips become a must. Mount Rainier offers outdoor adventure or relaxing walks to waterfalls. Gig Harbor is a waterfront village just 15 minutes from the convention center. Sumner and Puyallup are pure Main Street Americana, with antique shops, bakeries, parks and cafes lining beautiful downtown streets. DuPont and Lakewood are dotted throughout with golf courses and nature trails. Fife is bursting with gaming and entertainment. Pierce County is truly a Mountain, City, Sea experience for any level of activity.

All this packed into a mid-sized city means that when your meeting is in town, you run the show. Restaurants know you’re coming, and welcome your attendees. Museums are ready to serve. There’s a genuine excitement that can’t be replicated in bigger cities, and award-winning service from Travel Tacoma – Mt. Rainier Tourism and Sports that’s ready to make the planning process as easy for you as the decision to attend will be for your attendees.

This is what we’re looking forward to showing you in Tacoma and Pierce County.