Tourism Lulls in the Keweenaw- How Affected Are We?

The Keweenaw is also in one of it’s pauses in tourism, and Brad Barnett from Visit Keweenaw commented on this. 

“In the greater region, when you include Houghton, Hancock, Copper Harbor, you go down to the Porkies, Tourism plays a really important role. There’s no question about it. The state has statistics that they keep that suggests that anywhere up to ten percent of Houghton county employees are someway supported by visitor spending. If you head north to Keweenaw County, that figure goes closer to seventy percent (seven zero) so our region, like much of the upper peninsula is certainly impacted by tourism, and in some cases, depending where you look, it’s more important than others.” – Brad Barnett, Executive Director of Visit Keweenaw

He stressed how important tourism is for economic diversity, but also emphasized how tourism can lead to a more self-sufficient economy.  

“.. in the Houghton county area, like other parts of the U.P, you know, show that it’s possible to have a diversified economy in the region. Many regions across [the U.P.], they’re fighting over talent, right? and talent wants to be where they want to be, which in many places, is in a beautiful place like the U.P. So we as a community can do a great job of leveraging the natural beauty that we have here in the Keweenaw in terms of attracting talent, you know, that want to participate in remote working or other advanced industries, and they can come here and they can do that now.”  – Brad Barnett, Executive Director of Visit Keweenaw

Barnett went on to clarify that there is a small percentages of tourists that come back to live and work in the area because they grow attached to the area. This then in turn feeds the local economy and allows it to be more self-sufficient during the lulls between tourism seasons.