WAUSAU – Marathon County residents welcomed more tourists in 2023 than ever before.
The Wisconsin Department of Tourism published economic impact data from the 2023 tourism season Tuesday that showed tourism in Marathon County generated a record-breaking $490 million, surpassing the previous record of $460 million set in 2022.
The department estimates tourism brought $25 billion in economic impact to the state of Wisconsin. This number also surpasses a record set in 2022 of $23.7 billion. The model the state uses to calculate economic impact considers direct spending by visitors, indirect spending by businesses for supplies and induced spending, or the spending done by tourism and business industry employees on goods and services in their daily lives.
“Wisconsin tourism powers the economy and strengthens the fabric of communities of all sizes,” Anne Sayers, secretary of tourism in Wisconsin, said in a news release. “The historic impact of tourism reached every corner of Wisconsin and, in doing so, sustained livelihoods for thousands of our friends and neighbors.”
Counties statewide experienced growth in economic impact with Monroe County seeing the largest increase of 11.2% and both Buffalo and Vernon tying for least at 0.2%, according to Department of Tourism data. Marathon County’s 6.4% increase was one of the higher increases among the state’s 72 counties.
“We are excited to celebrate another record-breaking year in Marathon County. It’s a testament to our communities and partners who roll out the red carpet of hospitality to visitors,” Tim White, executive director of Visit Wausau, said in a news release. “We are committed to developing the ‘quality of place’ in Central Wisconsin, to showcase how awesome it is to visit, live, work, and invest here!”
Tourism in Marathon County supported 3,574 part- and full-time jobs in various industry sectors in 2023, up from 3,480 the year before. There are 178,045 similar jobs in counties across the state, an increase from 174,623 in 2022.
Taxes collected from tourism-related activities in Marathon County increased from $28 million to $29.8 million from 2022 to 2023. The department said tourism generated $1.6 billion in state and local tax revenue in 2023. Without this revenue, Wisconsin households would need to pay $660 more to maintain current level of services, according to Visit Wausau.
The state as a whole welcomed 113 million visits in 2023, nearly two million more visits than 2022. A record 46 million overnight visits also occurred last year. Overnight visitors spend on average almost three times as much as a day-trip visitor, the release said.
“These numbers show what an important role our tourism economy plays in our state’s economic success. And this didn’t happen by chance − this happens because of the hardworking folks in this critical industry who work day in and day out to make sure visitors enjoy their time here and come back year after year,” Gov. Tony Evers said in a news release. “We’ve been proud to help support their good work by making smart, strategic investments over the last several years to support Wisconsin’s tourism industry, and our hard work together is clearly paying off.”
In June 2023, Evers signed 2023 Wisconsin Act 12, which modified how the state redistributes tax dollars to local governments across the state in a process called "shared revenue." One full penny of each dollar from a taxable purchase in the state goes into a separate fund to be returned to local governments as a result of the law change, according to analysis by the League of Wisconsin Municipalities.
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Erik Pfantz covers local government and education in central Wisconsin for USA-TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin and values his background as a rural Wisconsinite. Contact him at epfantz@gannett.com.
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