Milwaukee tourism had a record year in 2023, contributing over $4 billion to the local economy, according to new data from the Wisconsin Department of Tourism.
Milwaukee County’s total tourism economic impact — a figure based on visitor spending, employment income and tax impacts — grew to $4.167 billion, or up 6.2% from 2022, and outpaced Wisconsin’s 5.4% statewide growth.
Visit Milwaukee, the local tourism organization, said the growth was driven by both convention business and leisure spending from tourists.
“We had an amazing 2023, and we are looking forward to continued growth in 2024,” said Peggy Williams-Smith, president and CEO of Visit Milwaukee, in the press release announcing the local data.
The greater Milwaukee County area — defined as a four-county region that includes Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Washington and Waukesha counties — had a $6.388 billion total economic impact through tourism and over a quarter of the state’s tourism spending, according to the release.
Visit Milwaukee said in its press release that was “an all-time tourism spending record” in the greater Milwaukee County area.
In all, there were 113 million visits to Wisconsin last year and $15.7 billion in direct visitor spending, money spent by visitors on things like lodging, restaurants and transportation. That was a 5% increase from 2022, which continued a positive trend following a 2020 drop during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to state data.
Visitor spending increased by 31.1% in 2021 and 16.3% in 2022, in the first two years after the pandemic.
Here’s more to know about the year in tourism for Milwaukee:
Which cities were visitors to Milwaukee coming from?
The Visit Milwaukee release detailed which metropolitan areas visitors to Milwaukee came from by percentage:
- Chicago, 21.6%
- Green Bay-Appleton, 12.4%
- Madison, 9.1%
- Minneapolis-St. Paul, 3.5%
- Wausau-Rhinelander, 2.8%
- Rockford, Illinois, 2.2%
- La Crosse-Eau Claire, 2.1%
- St. Louis, Missouri, 1.9%
- Des Moines-Ames, Iowa, 1.9%
- Davenport, Iowa-Rock Island-Moline, Illinois, 1.6%
Which states were visitors to Milwaukee coming from?
The organization also identified which states visitors were coming from and broke that down by percent as well. Unsurprisingly, travelers from within the state and nearby states were the most frequent.
- Wisconsin, 29.6%
- Illinois, 25.5%
- Iowa, 4.5%
- Minnesota, 3.5%
- Michigan, 3.4%
- Indiana, 3.3%
- Missouri, 3.1%
- Texas, 2.9%
- Florida, 2.6%
- Ohio, 2.1%
How tourism affects the Milwaukee County economy
The study said tourism supported over 27,000 jobs in Milwaukee County, an increase of 2.1% from 2022.
The state and local tax generation from tourism reached over $231 million, an increase of 6.6%. Business sales from tourism totaled $4.167 billion, up 6.2%.
Labor income, wages or other pay supported by visitor spending from tourism totaled $1.356 billion.
How tourism affects the greater Milwaukee County area economy
In the greater Milwaukee County area, tourism supported almost 44,000 jobs, an increase of 5.91% from 2022.
The state and local tax generation from tourism reached over $353 million, an increase of 6.32%. Business sales from tourism totaled $6.388 billion, up 5.93%.
Labor income from tourism totaled $2.022 billion.
How do visitors stay in Milwaukee County?
The typical Milwaukee County visitor comes from between 50 and 199 miles away and stays 1.4 days, with 71.4% overnight and 35.6% repeat travelers.
While Chicago remained the most common visitor origin city, the release noted that Minneapolis-St. Paul and Des Moines, Iowa, had strong growth.
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