STURGEON BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Millions of people visit Door County each year.
But county leaders want visitors to postpone travel plans to hotels and motels, for now, due to the coronavirus pandemic.
For more than a half century a red light has guided some travelers to an overnight oasis in downtown Sturgeon Bay, But on Thursday, the parking lot at the Holiday Music Motel was empty, and the neon no vacancy sign was glowing.
“Kind of incrementally, we started scaling back, by not taking new reservations. And then now, we’ve just completely shut it down,” said Melanie Jane, Holiday Music Motel Co-Owner.
Jane tells FOX 11 the 18-room site is not taking reservations until further notice.
“Is anybody prepared for that? Is anybody prepared to be closed for a month or more? I highly doubt it. But there’s no point in panicking right now.”
Jane says the closure coincides with a Door County Emergency Management announcement this week for hotels and motels in the county.
“We were asking them to to hold back on additional reservations, for at least the next 30 days, and to take a look at canceling existing reservations,” said David Lienau, Door County Board Chairman.
Lienau tells FOX 11 people shopping downtown are welcome, but, there are some considerations.
“We’re just asking them to follow CDC guidelines. No more than groups of 10. I have seen some locations in the county where they limit the number of people that can come in, in any one period of time. So, there is 10 or less in their store or in the facility.”
At the Holiday Music Motel Melanie Jane is hoping for the best.
“To not be proactive and prevent people from moving around, is one of the only ways that we’re going to slow this thing down. Nobody’s said that we can stop it, but we need to slow it down.”
County leaders will evaluate the travel plan in a month. But David Lienau says he expects it to extend past 30 days.
