Door County Celebrates National Tourism Week

$800,000 of Tourism Dollars Committed to Parks of Door County

Destination Door County (DDC) is excited to announce a special investment of $800,000 in Door County’s parks. This special investment is possible due to higher than anticipated room tax collections in 2022, and this one-time funding allocation will be shared by municipal parks, county parks and state parks in Door County.

“Our parks provide our residents with incredible outdoor recreation opportunities and are key drivers of visitation to Door County as well,” stated Julie Gilbert, President/CEO of Destination Door County. “We are very excited to be able to provide this special funding to enhance these important natural attractions that we all love,” she said.

DDC will work directly with municipalities, and partner with local Friends Groups for the state and county parks, to facilitate park enhancements and improvements. Additional details about this firstof-its-kind investment by DDC will be released in the coming weeks.

Travel Forward

By Julie Gilbert President/CEO, Destination Door County

elevating the quality of life for all of us.

This year, we’re moving forward by focusing on travel’s essential role in all these areas along with uniting us in an essential connection—travel.

This special section is brought to you by:

As we enter the 40th anniversary of National Travel and Tourism Week (NTTW) May 7 – 13, 2023, it is a good reminder of what this means for the entire U.S. travel community and our visitor economy in Door County. It is an annual tradition to celebrate travel’s essential role in stimulating economic growth, cultivating vibrant communities, investing in sustainable environmental practices that take care of the places we love, creating quality job opportunities, inspiring new businesses, and

It is always good to look back before moving forward and I would like to do just that. In May of 2022, we signed our new Entity Agreement with the Door County Tourism Zone. It was a celebratory occasion with Governor Evers and Tourism Secretary Ann Sayers looking on. As part of our partnership and new agreement with the Zone, there was a Strategic Planning Committee established with Destination Door County (DDC) Board of Directors and Tourism Zone Commissioners working together to establish goals and objectives representing the direction and focus that DDC would take in 2023.

We focused on our three pillars which include Destination

Alignment and Community Outreach, Sustainability for our Businesses and Environment and Values Based Marketing. Let me start with Destination Alignment and Community Outreach. We define that as: Listening to and seeking input from residents and stakeholders has become an integral component of DDC’s efforts, particularly since destination promotion is done for the benefit and wellbeing of every person in the community. Being driven by the same core values helps determine priorities and provides a roadmap which leads to a more authentic promotion of the destination and a more engaged community in the process.

Our goals are:

#1 - Cultivate an environment where Door County’s tourism industry can lead by example championing tourisms benefits helping mitigate its impacts

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