U of M Economic Study Details the Tourism Industry’s Impacts in the Western Upper Peninsula

Tourism has a large economic impact throughout the Keweenaw Peninsula. Yesterday the Western Upper Peninsula Planning and Development Region and Visit Keweenaw hosted the University of Michigan Economic Growth Institute to share findings from a year-long study on the western region’s tourism industry. The study posed a questionnaire to visitors in the region to gather data on how much, and where they spend money. As well as asked what sort of activities they were in the area for and the purpose of their visit.

“As I said, we collected a lot of secondary data about occupancy and visitation, and we used this to try to model visitation across the region month by month. And so this is estimated visitation month by month for the 2023 year. And we see the largest peak from June to September. And then we do see a secondary rise in the winter month with a second peak in February there.” – Eli McClain, Research Project Manager, University of Michigan Economic Growth Institute

The majority of visitors that travel to Houghton County stay for an average of four days and consist of two people. They spend an average of 407 dollars on amenities during that time, about 50 dollars more than an average four-day stay in the western Upper Peninsula.

“However, within these groups, we still see significant ranges. A lot of that can be accounted for when we look at activity types, sometimes the origin of travelers and their household income, and the season of the visit. There are a lot of factors that come

into play when we’re looking at spending.” – Eli McClain, Research Project Manager, University of Michigan Economic Growth Institute

The study asked for activity responses by season. From spring to Fall Hiking topped the list of recreation visitors look for. In the winter downhill skiing, snowmobiling and cross-country skiing rounded out the top three activities for visitors. But one activity that visitors sought out all year round included searching for the stars and northern lights in the Copper Country’s dark skies.

“So all of these percentages will add to over 100%. And so we can think of these different groups as slightly overlapping or somewhat overlapping circles. And so we see some people that report six, seven activities that they were engaged in. And we have some that say, no, I just came up here to ski, or I just came up here to snowmobile. And that is the activity that I’m engaged in. Nothing else.” – Eli McClain, Research Project Manager, University of Michigan Economic Growth Institute

The study conducted by U of M EGI was unique in that there have not been any studies done on a singular region accompanying only six counties. The conclusion of the study asked visitor’s about if they would recommend their trip to others. Typically an area that seeks out the tourism industry will want to receive a score around 50. The Copper Country regularly inspires it’s guests to make return trips and share their experiences with others. The EGI reported that the western region of the Upper Peninsula tends to see a visitor satisfaction score above 80. 

Visit Keweenaw, WUPPDR and the Keweenaw Chamber of Commerce hosted a morning meeting to share some of the study’s findings with Houghton businesses and residents, followed by a second meeting with Keweenaw County in Eagle Harbor. The study encompassed the six-county region of the western Upper Peninsula with the first questionnaires going out in January 2023. Check out some photos of the presentation slides to learn more about the study.