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State Department of Tourism Statistics Released

Tourism spending in Door County increased again last year, but not by much.

According to a report issued by the state’s Department of Tourism, visitors to the peninsula spent $271.2 million in 2011, which is a 1.6 percent increase from the $266.9 million spent in 2010. The county ranked eighth this year in visitor spending, dropping from the number seven spot last year.

Those following the numbers will note that the figures issued this year conflict with those from last year, when the Department of Tourism put 2010’s tourism spending at $382.2 million. According to Jon Jarosh, director of communications and relations for the Door County Visitor Bureau, the new numbers are a result of a change in how Door County received its statistics.

“The visitor bureau didn’t pay for any research this year,” he says. “The firm that the state hired did the research for each county.”

The state recently stopped using Davidson-Peterson, the firm it had been using to gauge visitor spending for the past 20 years, and hired a new firm, Tourism Economics. With the new firm came new, and more accurate, methodologies, says Wisconsin Secretary of Tourism Stephanie Klett.

“These numbers [with Tourism Economics] are probably the most conservative, which makes them the best numbers,” she says.

According to Klett, Davidson-Peterson’s calculations were geared more toward cities like Las Vegas, where almost all spending is visitor spending, than small towns in Wisconsin. Therefore, they always vastly overestimated visitor spending throughout the state.

With the new Tourism Economics model, every county saw a dip in its reported numbers from the last few years, but Klett is confident that the new system is the better one.

“We’ve got to be honest with taxpayers,” she says. “You don’t want an inflated report; you want an honest report.”

Re-evaluating tourism numbers isn’t without precedent, as Davidson-Peterson itself was forced to recalculate 2009’s numbers for Door County to match up with its 2010 formula.

Jarosh says that while the figures may have changed, the actual numbers are not as important as the positive trend in growth.

“Looking at the history, we are still positioned in a good spot,” he says. “With energy prices still rising, we’re a good destination for those people from Chicago and Milwaukee, where we’re less than a tank away.”

While it’s true that spending in Door County is on the rise, the actual percentage of growth is fairly small when compared to other counties on the list that ranked similarly. Outagamie County, which passed Door County to take the number seven spot, had an increase in tourism spending of 8.92 percent. Brown County, which ranked fifth, had an increase of 11.85 percent.

A lot of that growth can be chalked up to the green and yellow draw of those counties, states Jarosh.

“What’s happened, from a pure spending standpoint, is that the Lambeau Field renovations have put a lot of money into that area,” he says. “That’s why Brown has leapfrogged us, and some of that has spread to Outagamie County. And they’re continuing to do some things that will keep them ahead of us.”

Sam Perlman, economic development manager at the Door County Economic Development Corporation, is hopeful that the county can earn a higher rank next year.

“They’ve seen some pretty tremendous growth,” he says, speaking of the other counties. “A very strong season this year and continued improvement in the overall economy will maybe help us make up the gap and move back up.”

Perlman also says that it’s important to remember exactly what company Door County is keeping on the top 10 list.

“By a fair margin, we are one of the smallest of the top ten counties,” he says. “So we continue to perform very well.”

The visitor bureau is also hopeful that this year will be an even better year for tourism.

“Anecdotally, talking to business owners last year, the late spring cut down on business. It seems to be trending up this year,” says Jarosh. “I’m hearing from lodging owners that phones are ringing and inboxes are filling up.”

The state itself saw an increase of 7.6 percent in visitor spending from 2010 to 2011, rising from $9.2 million to $9.9 million. Tourism supported 181,000 jobs last year, 2,921 of which were located in Door County.