We're up next. What will we do with it?

// By Omar Shaikh, Chair of VISIT Milwaukee, president & partner with MMAC member SURG Restaurant Group

The community-wide effort to successfully attract DNC 2020 to Milwaukee was impressive. This convention will shine a huge international spotlight on Milwaukee. Our city will be the set for the biggest political reality show of the year.

Already a big draw

In 2018, the VISIT Milwaukee team hosted 146 total travel journalists, welcomed more than 200 group tour operators, and traveled 117,200 miles to trade shows and events promoting Milwaukee. They successfully booked more than 400 meetings and conventions, playing host to a wonderfully diverse series of organizations and events from Harley-Davidson to the American Farm Bureau; from Northwestern Mutual to the Bead & Button Show.

And 2020 will bring other huge events to Milwaukee, including the Ryder Cup — the biggest

international event in professional golf — a major travel media convention featuring more than 300 travel writers and Olympic-qualifying events.

You see, Milwaukee is not a “Fonzie come lately” to the convention and tourism scene. It has been a growing powerhouse for some time.

That said, in 2020, more eyes than ever are going to be turned to Milwaukee, from leaders of politics to leaders of business to the national and international sports community. For a city that traditionally “shows” better than it “tells,” this is a great opportunity to make a strong, lasting and compelling first impression that makes people want to come back for their own vacation or their own company’s convention.

And therein lies our challenge. We need to make sure Milwaukee has the hospitality infrastructure to capture this spike in attention and accommodate these visitors returning for their own reasons and events.

Our current convention center is one of the smallest among our peer cities nationally. Over the last 7 years, Milwaukee has lost more than $300 million in business due to our facilities being undersized.

Undersized convention center limits potential

Our current convention center is one of the smallest among our peer cities nationally. In fact, more than the last 7 years, Milwaukee has lost more than $300 million in business due to our facilities being undersized.

2020 is going to bring a historic level of exposure for Milwaukee. When those tens of thousands of visitors from big one-off events like the DNC or Ryder Cup inquire about coming back for their own personal or business reasons, will we have to have the space to accommodate them? If they are told “there is no room in the inn,” we will have missed our moment, and they are not likely to give us a chance again anytime soon.

Tourism helps fund state

A lot of people treat tourism like it’s an add-on to the state’s economy. The truth is that tourism is one of the three fundamental pillars of the Wisconsin economy, along with manufacturing and agriculture.

In Milwaukee County, tourism directly accounts for $3.7 billion in total business and nearly 33,000 full-time jobs. To put that figure in perspective, without tourism jobs, the number of unemployed people in Milwaukee County would be three times higher.

In the four-county Milwaukee metro area, the numbers are even more eye-catching: nearly $6 billion in business sales, supporting more than 52,000 fulltime jobs paying more than $1.2 billion in annual wages.

In terms of tax dollars, tourism taxes generated enough revenue to lower the average tax bill for a Milwaukee County resident by $645 last year.

For too many years, Milwaukee was one of the best-kept secrets in the tourism world. Well, the secret is out. High-profile events like the Ryder Cup and the DNC are less the cause of the secret getting out than a validation of the exciting transformation that been going on the last decade.

Now that we’ve proven we’re a city to be reckoned with, we need to come together as a community to expand our convention and hospitality options and make room for the wide world of visitors that is increasingly showing up on our doorstep looking for those vibrant, welcoming, unique experiences that are totally random, totally wonderful, and entirely Milwaukee.

METRO MILWAUKEE TOURISM GENERATES:

$6 billion in business sales

52,000+ full-time jobs

$1.2+ billion in annual wages