Nearly 2,000 jobs in Vilas county are directly related to tourism and more visitors are coming over the past few years. Those were two key points of many, as tourism officials reported out at Eagle River City Hall Wednesday.
Department of Tourism Regional Specialist Jeff Anderson says the state has upped its marketing investments and it has paid off....
"....In 2015, according to Longwoods International, a leading research firm, for every dollar we invested for marketing the state of Wisconsin we saw $8 come back in the way of incremental tax revenues. So that means for every dollar we spent we generated enough visitor traffic that those additional dollars generated 8 dollars in tax revenues...."
Cindy Burzinski of Vilas County Tourism Tourism and Publicity says total business sales in 2015 were $271 million up nearly 3 percent from the year before. Total visitor spending was $212 million the same year, up more than 2 percent from 2014. Tax revenue generated from tourism was almost 22 million dollars in 2015. She says there's a direct link in an area like the Northwoods to people who are paid tourism dollars...
"....(businesses) pay their employees with money generated from visitors. The employees go to the grocery store, the gas station, they pay utility bills..All those businesses employ other people. So the trickle-down effect of tourism in this area is huge...."
Burzinski says Vilas county has seen an increase of $35 million or nearly 20 percent in recent years.
