OSHKOSH, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Last year, many places saw a record drop in tourism, communities in the Fox Cities were no exception.
Pamela Cuevas opened another Olive and Rose Boutique on College Avenue in August.
Now, she’s noticed more people are willing to pull out their cards this year.
“A lot of increase in traffic. I feel like last summer a lot of people were still weary about coming out with COVID and the number rising.”
Coming into 2021, she didn’t know what kind of foot traffic to expect at her Appleton and Oshkosh locations as the pandemic continues.
Maddie Uhlenbrauck, Marketing Communications Manager at the Fox Cities Convention and Visitors Bureau (FCCVB) says Olive and Rose isn’t the only business that found success this summer.
More people came to the Fox Cities, and tourism is on the rebound.
In May 2021, FCCVB announced there was $333 million in visitor spending last year, a 35% drop from the $511 million in 2019.
Uhlenbrauck says they are confident 2021 spending numbers will bounce back, and this fall was a good indicator.
She says hotel room revenue in the Fox Cities market for October 2021 was nearly the same as October 2019.
Uhlenbrauck tells FOX 11 the turnaround is thanks to events and entertainment being back.
“Sports and leisure are definitely leading the charge for us and we’re really happy with how those have returned. We knew that meetings and conversations would take awhile with different restrictions that companies have but sports are booming. You can’t do sports virtually so you know those are going to come back and leisure of course with people wanting to see family and just get out.”
Uhlenbrauck says there’s really nowhere but up for Fox Cities tourism.
“Now that we have a lot of our large group events back we don’t expect them to go anywhere.”
The money the visitors bureau brings in goes directly back to the community through the Fox Cities tourism development grant program.
