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DCVB Sees Signs for a ‘Darn Good Summer’

“It’s going to be a pretty darn good summer for us all,” Door County Visitor Bureau (DCVB) President & CEO Jack Moneypenny told a meeting of the executive committee of the Door County Tourism Zone Commission on April 17.

Moneypenny based that assessment on a variety of indicators, such as requests for the annual Door County Visitors Guide through a variety of channels, including Chicago users of Comcast cable TV. Comcast customers can press a button on their remote to request that a Visitors Guide be sent to them. He said more than 500 requests have been made that way.

Moneypenny said the Visitors Guides have also been flying out of the Mayfair Mall in Milwaukee and Hilldale Mall in Madison where the DCVB has set up “Power Up, Wind Down” stations that feature “pigtails” to plug into and recharge your phone while relaxing in an Adirondack chair while surrounded by images and videos of Door County.

“We’re getting a lot of play out of that,” Moneypenny said.

When the “Power Up, Wind Down” areas end in June at the two malls, one of the phone charging stations will go into the DCVB lobby and the other will be available for community events and trade shows.

Moneypenny also reported that cherry trees are going up in front of the DCVB office on the west side of Sturgeon Bay and that the electric vehicle charging station will open with a ribbon cutting by Tourism Secretary Stephanie Klett on May 21. His office has already gotten calls from electric vehicle owners wanting to know about charging stations in Door County.

He also mentioned that a video on the history of cherries in Door County on the DCVB website has been seeing a lot of action.

“I can’t even tell you how many times it’s been hit,” he said.

Moneypenny also reported that the proposed legislative changes to ensure that room taxes are used the same throughout the state never made it out of committee, and was heavily lobbied against by the Wisconsin League of Municipalities. The bill would have required 70 percent of room tax revenue be used for tourism promotion and development, while the remaining 30 percent could be used for wherever the municipality needs it. Some municipalities opposed the measure because they are using room tax revenues to conduct their daily business.

Moneypenny said he expects it will be introduced again, but added, “It’s changed so much since the first draft. We’ll see what they come up with next.”