MANITOWOC, WI (WTAQ) – The SS Badger returns this week to launch the summer season and once again carry tourists from Manitowoc to Ludington, Michigan.
The popular car ferry will arrive at the port on Thursday.
Manitowoc Area Visitor & Convention Bureau Executive Director Jason Ring says it brings in $35 million each year, split between the cities.
“The arrival of the car ferry really starts the tourism season for us,” Ring told WTAQ News. “It’s really a highway right into our community, that is seasonal. So it’s great seeing those cars come rolling off the ferry, because those are tourists coming into our community.”
The ferry also provides a significant amount of jobs for each of the communities.
“That car ferry has over 200 people employed, keeping that car ferry running and doing the marketing, doing the sales, steering the boat, parking the cars,” Ring said. “But then due to the increased traffic in the communities of Manitowoc and Ludington, from the the visitors that that car ferry brings into our communities, we employ 500 people through that indirectly.”
Ring says the ferry also serves as a cultural and historic icon for the community.
“It goes to the historic shipbuilding that Manitowoc has been a part of since its very beginning, and we’re still building ships today at burger boat company. So we have a huge tie to that,” Ring said.
Tourists are able to check out things like the Wisconsin Maritime Museum, which shows a history of shipbuilding as it relates to Manitowoc’s history and the future.
As for the people heading to the port to see the ship set sail on Thursday, Ring has some advice, and a request.
“Get there early, because there is generally a crowd that comes out to greet the ferry on that first sail,” Ring said. “After the ferry departs, stick around in our downtown and have lunch somewhere, a late lunch after the car ferry departs, and enjoy yourself. Make a day of it.”
The ferry typically operates into October.
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