GREEN BAY - Wisconsin’s $22 billion tourism industry is hurting for help after thousands of its workers found other jobs when the coronavirus pandemic shut down leisure and business travel.
Hotels, recreation centers, resorts, restaurants, entertainment venues and other businesses have put the ‘help wanted’ signs out for housekeepers, chefs, wait staff, front desk clerks, office managers and sales staff more people prepare to travel as the coronavirus vaccines roll out.
Without enough workers, tourism-related businesses could have to turn down bookings and reservations, stunting their recovery.
“It’s been brutal,” said Bill Elliott, president and CEO of the Wisconsin Hotel & Lodging Association. “It’s literally putting hotels in a position of having to cut sales off because they can’t clean all the rooms they need to the following day. It’s really a weird time.”
By Casey Nelson
May 6, 2021 12:01 PM
Opening the doors once again, five days later, is a big step in getting back to the normal course of business for employees, customers, and the community.
“[Improved] frame of mind and frame of business and moving things forward, so that we can at least reach out and say we’re on our way to healing,” said Oneida Nation Public Relations Director Bobbi Webster. “The parking lots are filling up and we’re not hearing anything negative right now. It seems like people are getting back to the regular course of business.”
Webster says the Oneida Nation has seen an outpouring of support, condolences, prayers, and encouragement from all over the country – including contact from the governor’s office, local representatives, the Brown County Executive’s office, Greater Green Bay Convention and Visitors Bureau, other tribes across the state, and even the National Indian Gaming Commission and National Congress of American Indians.
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