WisBusiness: State hopes new initiative can reverse drop in business-related tourism

By Kay Nolan

For WisBusiness.com

MILWAUKEE — The Wisconsin tourism industry has launched a campaign to attract business professionals to the state’s hotels, conference centers and even historical sites, in efforts to reverse a striking drop-off in business-related tourism revenue last year.

Gov. Jim Doyle, Department of Tourism Secretary Kelli Trumble and Department of Commerce Secretary Dick Leinenkugel announced the initiative today at the Midwest Airlines Center in Milwaukee, as part of an annual conference of tourism industry professionals.

The new “Meetings Mean Business For Wisconsin” campaign encourages Wisconsin companies to hold meetings, training sessions and trade shows at facilities in the state. It also suggests that business professionals tour or hold meetings at historic sites, such as Old World Wisconsin near Eagle, tribal museums in northern Wisconsin, the Racine Art Museum or the EAA AirVenture Museum in Oshkosh.

The state officials noted that meetings and conventions accounted for just 11 percent, or $1.4 billion, of Wisconsin’s $13 billion in traveler spending in 2008. Still, they said, business travel was the fastest-growing segment of the state’s tourism industry from 2000 to 2008, until it plunged during last year’s banking and stock market crisis. Trumble predicts a decrease of 15 percent in business travel in the state when figures for 2009 become available in May.

While family outings and vacations also have lessened during the nation’s economic crisis, the U.S. Travel Association estimates that the business meetings and conventions portion of the travel industry will likely show a decrease during 2009 of more than three times the projected rate of decrease for leisure travel, she said.

“Tourism in Wisconsin is at a critical point,” Doyle said. “But Wisconsin tourism can adjust; it can adapt. Maybe this is a time when people aren’t going to take a fancy trip to Europe or the Caribbean, but they’re going to find a wonderful time in many different places in Wisconsin.”

Doyle said the tourism industry supports 300,000 jobs statewide, and that many Wisconsinites have warm memories of their first job as a teen or young adult in the hospitality field.

For non-residents, he said, memories of childhood vacations in Wisconsin might lead them to pursue careers or run businesses in the state.

“Tourism has been our gateway,” Doyle said.

The initiative will be a low-cost program, consisting of letters and phone calls to CEOs of the top 100 companies that have substantial operations or headquarters in Wisconsin, Trumble said. Local tourism and visitors bureaus will help monitor use of motels and other facilities.

“It’s not going to be an expensive marketing campaign,” Trumble said.

Chet Gerlach, executive director of the Association of Wisconsin Tourism Attractions, said the key to drumming up corporate travel is to link business meetings with visits to local attractions.

“I’ve been doing this for 25 years, and one thing I’ve come to realize is that usually, people don’t come to Milwaukee, for example, for a meal or to stay at a hotel. They come because of some attraction,” he said. “People who are involved in economic development should be very much involved in creating new tourist attractions. You have to give people a reason to come.”

Leinenkugel said his family’s Chippewa Falls brewing business pulled off a successful conference in Wisconsin one February by inviting attendees from other states to join in ice fishing and snowmobiling.

“Many of them would never have had that experience otherwise,” he said.

Omar Shaikh, who owns four Milwaukee-area restaurants, said business is picking up somewhat after a bad year in 2009. He said businesses in Milwaukee, however, have to fight the perception among outstate residents that Milwaukee is a not safe place to have a meal or attend an event. “It is safe,” he said. “I have three restaurants on Milwaukee St. (near downtown) and I haven’t had one bad incident.”

Scott Krause, general manager of the Heidel House Resort and Spa in Green Lake, said he supports the initiative. He said business gatherings at his facility fell dramatically in 2008 and 2009 — more so than weddings or family events, despite his efforts to offer special deals and step up advertising.

B. Cassie Molkentin, a member of NATOW, the Native American Tourism of Wisconsin organization, said the state’s 11 tribes are working to promote tourist attractions beyond gaming facilities.

“We can arrange tours of reservations and provide dancing and cultural presentations for corporate groups,” she said. They also can visit the Oneida Nation Museum near Green Bay or the Stockbridge-Munsee cultural center in Bowler in Shawano County, she said, and a new Menominee cultural center will open soon in Keshena in Menominee County.

“We want to be destinations,” said Molkentin.

Leinenkugel cited a study that said for every dollar spent on business travel, businesses can expect to reap $12.50 in revenue from increased business contacts and new customers. According to the study from the global research firm Oxford Economics, business executives and travelers report about 40 percent of prospective customers are won over during face-to-face meetings, compared with 16 percent without such a meeting.