Official: Local tourism spending should improve after COVID-19 brought dip in 2020

Neil Johnson, The Janesville Gazette, Wis.
·2 min read

May 5—JANESVILLE — Officials said tourism spending in Janesville dropped 26% in 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic hammered the local hospitality and tourism industry.

Despite down spending on lodging and at local tourism stops last year, the Janesville area Convention & Visitors Bureau reported retail spending by visitors was a bright spot.

And the Janesville Area Convention & Visitors Bureau's director, Christine Rebout, told The Gazette that spring and summer 2021 could show a resurgence in tourism spending as draws such as youth sports tournaments make a comeback.

Overall tourism spending in Janesville last year totaled $110 million, a 26% drop compared to 2019, the convention and visitor's bureau reported this week. That's roughly in line with the 28% drop in tourism spending Rock County as a whole saw last year.

But the tourism group reported that visitor spending on retail slightly outpaced statewide averages. All told, retail spending for visitors totaled $34 million, and food and beverage sales were about $31 million, the group reported.

Rebout said based on the flow of new calls she has seen this spring from small and large bus tours, she expects to see a bounce back, particularly in outdoor tourism. Local visitor focal points such as Janesville's Rotary Botanical Gardens could see an uptick in foot traffic via an increase in bus tours coming into the city, Rebout said.

The most likely uptick in visitor spending will come this spring and summer as youth sports tournaments return. Families visiting for summer youth baseball tourneys have been a big score in the past for hotels in Janesville.

Rebout has said in the past that even tournaments held in neighboring metros of Rockford, Illinois, and Madison tend to supply the hotel sector here with an uptick in overnight stays.

The tourism industry supported about 1,000 jobs last year.

This week, the Tour of America's Dairyland announced it will visit Janesville for two days of pro-am bicycle races in mid-June. That comes after the Dairyland tour scrubbed its entire race schedule last summer during the pandemic.

It's the first time the Dairyland tour has held two straight days of races in Janesville. One local organizer said both days of annual Dairyland race stop, known as the Town Square Gran Prix, could bring 2,500 spectators, plus hundreds of racers, to Janesville's downtown each day.

The event in past years hasn't been a big draw for hotel stays because it normally runs one day, but a multi-day event could give the local hotel and restaurant sectors a boost.

Rebout's office now is in the process of coordinating with perennial tour stops to learn which ones have begun resuming tours as more of the population gets vaccinated against COVID-19.

A number of local manufacturers are hotspots for visitors to tour, but many of those facilities suspended factory tours last year during the pandemic.