Tourism’s COVID Bump Slowing
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Early returns show Door County’s tourism industry has slowed somewhat after the dramatic surge experienced during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.
That is the picture painted by lodging industry data, and specifically the 8% room tax collected on all overnight stays. Through July of this year, those room tax collections were down 3.65% compared to the same period in 2022. However, the drop will be smaller once returns from several large, late-reporting properties in Sturgeon Bay are added to the numbers later this year. Tourism Zone Administrator Juliana Behme said the number of late-reporting entities in July of this year was nearly double the number in July of 2022. She said lodging operators are still adjusting to the zone’s switch from paper to online reporting.
While lodging revenue is down compared to 2022, it’s still far ahead of the last, full pre-pandemic year of 2019. Through July of this year the lodging industry has collected $66,916,573 in total revenue, 48% more than the $45,189,007 it collected in 2019 and nearly $2.5 million more than in 2021.
That’s in part due to a large increase in overnight stays (23,530 more room nights were filled to date this year versus 2019), but also to a dramatic rise in the average daily rate, from $137 per night to $222 per night.
The lodging industry has collected $5,274,876 in room taxes through July, compared to $5,474,662 over the same period in 2022. Of that, 70 percent goes to Destination Door County for tourism marketing and promotion, and 30% goes back to the municipality in which it’s collected to be spent however the municipality chooses.
Among the major tourism-generating communities, the largest decline was seen in the City of Sturgeon Bay (20.2%), but Behme said a large portion of that drop is due to outstanding room tax reports from major lodging operators within the city. Baileys Harbor was next with a drop of 5.3%, and Gibraltar at 4.4%.
Sister Bay, Liberty Grove and the Village of Egg Harbor are the only three municipalities that have bucked the trend thus far in 2023. Sister Bay returns are up 10.6%, Liberty Grove 6.2% and Egg Harbor 2.8%.
