Fox Cities Tourism Takes Major Hit in 2020, Already Seeing Track for Recovery in 2021 wncy.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from wncy.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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.”