It has gone up a little bit and some smaller businesses have been moving here or sprouting up, but tourism and the hospital are still our main employment base.

If you find a STR deal, in Seattle or otherwise, you should pounce on it IF you have a solid contingency plan for what to do if tourism is frozen for 6 months... a year... or even a few years.

Tourism saw nearly 1 million visitors last year.

In 2008 tourism went down 13% or so. 

I tried to convert a small commercial building there and was horrified by the building department , especially because the majority of texas still embraces freedom to use your own property.

The Twin Cities are not a high tourism or travel area.

This ruling seemed outrageous to me (and many others) in a location where STRs/tourism is so prevalent.

My area is susceptible to hurricanes and is influenced by tourism, and I'd like to get into a few different markets over the next few years. 

There is a good amount of tourism and you are likely to have low occupancy if you price the unit right and have a location closer to the beach. 

Clearwater is a strong tourism market so maybe even turn it into a vacation rental