Holmen | La Crosse | Onalaska | Town of Campbell | West Salem
A.J. Frels Executive Director La Crosse County Convention and Visitors Bureau
The success of tourism relies on great partnerships. In La Crosse County, of course, I’m speaking of the County-wide collaboration that drives tourism as part of the creative and energetic public / private partnerships that take place every day. To give you an idea of the momentum that this kind of teamwork can generate, I would like to share some numbers from the WI Department of Tourism County by County Visitors Spending Report of 2017.
La Crosse County sits in the #9 position out of 72 counties statewide, enjoying an increase of 6.38% in visitor spending over 2016. That’s an increase of $15,800,000.00 to $263,900,000.00 in visitor spending in just one year! Due to an outstanding group effort, La Crosse County visitor spending achieved an all time high in 2017. To put things in perspective, out of the top ten counties in the state, only one County saw greater growth. Promoting the county as a whole allows our visitors the ability to find all tourism related information at one location. It supplies us with a massive inventory of attractions, events, festivals, and conference and meeting facilities -- not to mention the combined options of great history, the arts, restaurants, lodging and services provided by all our tourism partners. This makes Explore La Crosse a one stop shop for our visitors. So many times I am asked what is our greatest asset (and we have so many), and I have to respond that the truth is it’s the people who live here. I would like to thank the wonderful municipalities we get to work with everyday for their foresight in joining forces to create county-wide regional tourism. What a joy it is to promote the City of Onalaska, the Village of West Salem, the Town of Campbell, the Village of Holmen and the City of La Crosse, as well as the entire La Crosse County. We have an extremely dedicated Board of Directors who are committed to guiding and supporting our team. And, I am especially proud of the Explore La Crosse staff and all their hard work. Like so many of us who live here, they take great pride in the area and what we have to offer. We are also fortunate to have a vibrant private sector. We have some of the most committed business people in the state, if not in the entire Midwest. By partnering to tie their business drive with the drive everyone has to improve our county and take care of where we live, we truly have the best of both worlds.
We are very proud of the accomplishments we have achieved over the past couple years. I would like to share some of our highlights with you: • After a complete remodeling, we were thrilled to open the new I-90 State Welcome Center and our team of loyal volunteers was lined up and ready to help staff it once again. • We created 20 new videos from around the county. Those videos have been hard at work promoting our area online, at trade shows, conferences, and at the Welcome Centers.
Welcome
• A new digital map representing all members throughout La Crosse County has been created and is up and running at our Visitors Centers.
Economic Impact of Tourism
• We are now promoting events, festivals and our county to drive-by traffic year round with the new digital billboard campaign on I-90 near West Salem (55 events in 2017).
Our Communities
• We celebrated our 16th year of “Between the Bluffs Beer, Wine and Cheese Fest” while setting record attendance in 2018.
Festivals!
• We hit an all time high in our social media and website numbers this year, and they continue to climb. Much larger tourism destinations would be proud to report these numbers. • We continue to retain economically viable tourism events for the area, while attracting the return of groups we had not seen in a while and new events and groups who have never been here before. • On June 27th, we will enjoy our 21st Anniversary of La Crosse Area Day at Miller Park -- the longest running and largest community area day in the history of the Milwaukee Brewers. • In 2018, we reached a new high in total grant dollars being awarded to local festivals and events by putting $80,000.00 from our budget back in the hands of locals -- helping them promote area-wide events and increase visitor spending in our area. We are proud of the growth and success we have seen, and we look forward to welcoming even more visitors in the next year. La Crosse County has a unique combination of attractions, physical beauty, and talented people. This combination and our continued cooperative partnerships will ensure successful growth.
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