Fox Cities Tourism Takes Major Hit in 2020, Already Seeing Track for Recovery in 2021
By Casey Nelson
May 3, 2021 | 4:08 PM
APPLETON, WI (WTAQ) – Ten years of growth in visitor spending was brought to an abrupt halt in the Fox Cities last year. Tourism brought in $333 million in 2020 across the Fox Cities. That’s down a bit from the record-high of $511 million in 2019.
While the $333 million is still a substantial amount, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic was evident.
“Absolutely all of this spending decline was pandemic-related. Here in the Fox Cities, our tourism is really based on large group activities,” said Pam Seidl, Executive Director of the Fox Cities Convention & Visitors Bureau. “[It was a] perfect storm with this pandemic being a disease where you they don’t want groups of people gathering, and our tourism economy is based on large groups like meetings, conventions, sports tournaments.”