Here & Now

Tourism in a Second Pandemic Summer

Frederica Freyberg:

Newly-released data from the Wisconsin Department of Tourism shows visitor spending and taxes were down nearly 30% in 2020. Despite this hit, the tourism industry is optimistic that the 2021 season will look better with more people vaccinated every day and many anxious to take vacations that were postponed last year. To talk about the upcoming tourism season, we are joined by the president and CEO of the Wisconsin Dells Visitor and Convention Center Bureau, Romy Snyder, and thanks very much for being here.

Romy Snyder:

It’s my pleasure.

Frederica Freyberg:

So the governor just described Wisconsin and its tourism industry as resilient. How hard, though, was the last year for top-tier travel sites like the Wisconsin Dells?

Romy Snyder:

The tourism industry, and certainly statewide, but nationally and internationally, probably took the biggest hit from the results of the pandemic. You know, when we — when Wisconsin went to the “safer-at-home” orders, our businesses were shut down, the nonessential ones. So some hotels were able to stay open, but restaurants, retail, etc. were asked to shut down. So they used that time to really look at their safety protocols, their measures and were already thinking when we can open again, how will we do it so that we can ensure a safe experience for both our guests and our visitors. And that’s basically the frame of mind they’ve had now for the past year, is constantly assessing, pivoting and retooling their operations. But they are very resilient and we’re ready to go this year.

Frederica Freyberg:

Now, the good news is that surveys show that 87% of people plan to travel in the next six months. Are you seeing evidence of that with bookings and interest?

Romy Snyder:

So we actually surveyed our own database. So these are visitors who either ordered literature from us or who asked to be on our research database. And we know that 84% of our database will be traveling between now and the end of August. So that’s an incredible number, very optimistic for us. But absolutely. We had a record spring break this year. For the first three months of 2021, we’re already up 9% from 2019. So we’re not going to compare month-to-month over last year, but the last normal year we had we’re already almost 10% ahead of last year.

Frederica Freyberg:

People really want to get out. What role do you think an uptick in vaccinations plays in getting people out and spending their money?

Romy Snyder:

No question. I think as we continue to see the percentages of individuals who have had the first vaccine and then the second vaccine, I think that will play a huge part in people feeling comfortable and getting out to travel. No doubt.

Frederica Freyberg:

I understand that one major sticking point, though, is that it is hard to find employees. What is that situation in the Dells?

Romy Snyder:

So this year, because the demand for travel will be so high, we would already feel some sort of a pinch to get an adequate number of labor, which in past years hasn’t been an issue. This year we have the added situation where our J1 visa cultural exchange students, there’s a variety of ways that different — the countries and the embassies are handling the issuing of the visas. So we are optimistic that we are seeing more and more embassies issue visas. But we absolutely are doing an extra push to recruit seasonal staff for the Wisconsin Dells summer season, June, July and August. We’re going to have job fairs and we have a website that people can go to to apply for jobs right online. So there will be a lot of job opportunities available for anyone who wants one.

Frederica Freyberg:

At this point, does a lack of workers mean some reservations have to be turned away at all?

Romy Snyder:

Not that I’ve heard of. Hotels probably have the most flexibility in terms of how they manage their operations with guests. Certainly in the case of restaurants, where there are capacity limits, we are hopeful that that will not be the case. But they may — I know in the early year we’ve seen restaurants that had maybe one section closed. Again, we are hoping that that is not the situation. We will continue to actively recruit workers. And our goal, of course, is to have a sufficient supply so that we can ensure a really high level of guest experience.

Frederica Freyberg:

Well, good luck as the summer crush comes your way. Romy Snyder, thank you very much.

Romy Snyder:

You’re very welcome.