Tourism in Portland, Oregon facts for kids

Pioneer Courthouse Square in downtown Portland

Tourism in Portland, Oregon is a profitable industry that serves many. In 2018, Portland area tourism generated $5.3 billion in direct spending by 8.6 million overnight person-trips and employs 36,360 people who were paid $1.5 billion.

The city contains a wide variety of tourist attractions. The Washington Square and Pioneer Place are major shopping destinations. The Portland Art Museum, and Portland Institute for Contemporary Art offer cultural, historic, and modern art. Technological, industrial, and scientific exhibits are found at the Oregon Museum Science and Industry. The Oregon Zoo is an animal reserve. The Oregon Symphony at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall and the Hollywood Theatre are entertainment halls. Keller Fountain Park, Forest Park, and Portland Japanese Garden are natural parks. Memorials include the Oregon Holocaust Memorial and the Oregon Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

Destinations near the area include the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum, Multnomah Falls, Trillium Lake, and Mount Hood. Events include the Oregon International Air Show, Portland Rose Festival, and the Portland International Auto Show.

Cultural

• 24 Hour Church of Elvis, exhibit and museum (closed in 2013)
• Blue Sky Gallery, exhibits and archives for local and national photographers
• Klickitat Street, home of fictional characters Henry Huggins, Ramona Quimby and Beatrice "Beezus" Quimby in the children's book series by Beverly Cleary; a sculpture garden is on NE 37th
• Museum of Contemporary Craft, oldest continuously-running craft institution in the U.S. exhibiting local and international artists' work
• Northwest Film Center, film and video exhibition, film making arts education, and public information programs; sponsors the Portland International Film Festival, Northwest Filmmakers' Festival, Reel Music Film Festival, Portland Jewish Film Festival, and the Young People's Film Festival.
• Portland Art Museum, oldest art museum on the West Coast, seventh oldest in the United States, more than 42,000 permanent works of art, and at least one major traveling exhibition, Native American art, Northwest art, modern and contemporary art, Asian art, and an outdoor public sculpture garden
• Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, contemporary performance and visual arts programming, including the Time-Based Art Festival each September
• Portlandia, second-largest copper repoussé statue in the U.S., after the Statue of Liberty
• Powell's Books, claims to be the largest independent new and used bookstore in the world at 68,000 square feet (6,300 m²), about 1.6 acres of retail floor space
• Voodoo Doughnut, unusual doughnuts, eclectic decor, iconic pink boxes with drawings of voodoo priests, legal wedding services with catered receptions

Nightclubs

• Cotton Club, 1960s Soul Music venue
• Crystal Ballroom, 1914 ballroom with floating floor; since the 1960s, a dance and concert venue
• Dante's, live contemporary music venue
• Ground Kontrol, bar and one of the best video arcades in the U.S.
• La Luna, prominent with the emergence of Grunge music in the 1990s; formerly named Ninth Street Exit (1970s), and Pine Street Theater (1980–1986)
• Satyricon nightclub, alternative rock venue 1983–2003, closed 2010
• X-Ray Cafe, one of the best rock and roll clubs in the country 1990 to 1994, prominent in Portland's underground culture

Events

Portland Rose Festival

• Hood to Coast relay race, late August team charity fundraising race, among longest major relays and the largest with 20,000+ participants, 322 kilometres (200 mi) course from Timberline Lodge to Seaside on the Oregon Coast
• Mt. Hood Jazz Festival, mid-August
• Oregon International Air Show, largest civilian air show on the U.S. West Coast, held July or August
• Portland Farmers Market, weekly outdoor market, one of the five best farmers markets in the U.S., mid-March through December
• Portland International Auto Show, held in January
• Portland Marathon, the first weekend of October attracts about 10,000 participants, most from out of the area with the highest proportion of women of U.S. marathons (58% in 2007); a third of finishers are walking participants.
• Portland Rose Festival, June civic festival with hundreds of events including the second largest all-floral parade in the U.S.
• Portland Saturday Market, outdoor arts and crafts market, largest continuously operated outdoor market in the U.S., weekends March through Christmas
• Waterfront Blues Festival, charity fundraiser for Oregon Food Bank, first weekend in July, 150 performances on four stages
• Portland Urban Iditarod, team event through downtown Portland which emphasizes unique themes and costumes on the first Saturday in March

Historical

Oregon Vietnam Veterans Memorial

• Fort Vancouver National Historic Site
• Horse rings, horse tie-ups embedded in curbs since at least 1900
• Oregon Historical Society Museum
• Oregon Holocaust Memorial
• Oregon Korean War Memorial
• Oregon Vietnam Veterans Memorial
• Pittock Mansion
• Shanghai tunnels
• USS Blueback (SS-581) naval submarine tour
• Washington County Museum

Parks and gardens

Waterfront Park

• Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden, more than 2,500 rhododendrons and azaleas surrounded by small lakes, fountains, and small waterfalls
• Elk Rock Gardens of the Bishop's Close, 13-acre estate with Magnolias, native, and non-native trees and shrubs
• Forest Park, among the largest of city parks
• The Grotto
• Hoyt Arboretum, 187-acre hosts nearly ten thousand individual trees and shrubs of more than eleven hundred species with about 12 miles of trail
• International Rose Test Garden, more than 7,000 plants of more than 500 varieties on 4.5 scenic acres
• Lan Su Chinese Garden
• Leach Botanical Garden
• Mill Ends Park, world's smallest
• Mount Tabor, an extinct or dormant volcano with a 200-acre city park on the summit
• Oaks Amusement Park
• Pioneer Courthouse Square
• Portland Japanese Garden
• Tom McCall Waterfront Park
• Washington Park

Science, technology and education

Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum

• Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum
• Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI)
• Oregon Rail Heritage Center
• Oregon Zoo
• Portland Children's Museum (closed in 2021)
• Rice Northwest Museum of Rocks and Minerals
• World Forestry Center

Other

• Audubon Society of Portland
• Burnside Skatepark
• Oregon Sports Hall of Fame
• Portland Aerial Tram
• Portland Vintage Trolley (recently discontinued)
• Washington Park and Zoo Railway
• Willamette Shore Trolley

Portland bridges

• Interstate Bridge
• St. Johns Bridge
• Fremont Bridge
• Broadway Bridge
• Steel Bridge
• Burnside Bridge
• Morrison Bridge
• Hawthorne Bridge
• Marquam Bridge
• Tilikum Crossing
• Ross Island Bridge
• Sellwood Bridge

Images for kids

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  Powell's Books main store

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  A rock band playing at the Crystal Ballroom

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  Pioneer Place in downtown

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  Steel Bridge, one of the most multimodal bridges in the world