GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – 5.5 million people people visited Brown County in 2021.
Resulting in a rebound of visitor spending reaching 88% of pre-pandemic levels, and an economic impact of $1.1 billion.
A result that left officials pleasantly surprised.
VP of Marketing and Communications for Discover Green Bay Nick Meisner tells FOX 11 some of that is due to Lambeau Field being full once again for the 2021 season.
“Did we expect it to be all the way up to 88%? I think that would have been some very optimistic thinking.”
Leading travelers from in and out of Wisconsin to see the green and gold.
It’s something that helped area hotels following COVID-19, as spending in lodging was up close to 60% from 2020.
“Lodging is a big factor in visitor spending numbers. Not typically a 58% difference year over year,” said Meisner. “That is quite unique and likely contributed to the fact that there were just no visitors in 2020.”
Fox Cities Convention and Visitors Bureau Executive Director Pam Seidel tells FOX 11 that like Green Bay, they saw tremendous growth last year.
“We’re just very happy to see that the tourism economy is back on track.”.
Visitor spending increased to $466 million, a 40% increase from 2020.
It’s within 9% of 2019 levels.
“We’ve done very well with sports tournaments. Community First Champions Center of the Fox Cities, back on track really leading our tourism recovery,” Seidel said.
She hopes that even with concerns over inflation and sky high gas prices, people still travel to Northeast Wisconsin.
“The good news is we in the Fox Cities, we’re primarily a drive-to market. So we’re going to see some road trips closer to home and people just kind of not traveling as much or as far I should say.”
She says average daily rates are up $10 to $20 dollars for hotels.
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