September 25, 2025
Visit Eau Claire introduces a record breaking economic impact of $461 million in 2024.
The tourism scene in Eau Claire, Wisconsin is without a doubt something to celebrate. Friday, September 19, the Eau Claire Area Chamber of Commerce hosted September's Eggs & Issues: The Economic Impact of Local Tourism at Chippewa Valley Technical College's Business Education Center. This event served those in attendance with information regarding tourism in Eau Claire and the state of Wisconsin, directly from representatives of Travel Wisconsin and Visit Eau Claire.
Kenzi Havlicek, Visit Eau Claire's Executive Director, introduced the organization's goals and missions, hitting key discussion points including who Visit Eau Claire is, tourism's impact on the Eau Claire community, lodging room tax and funding, strategic objectives, and the future of tourism in Eau Claire. Visit Eau Claire is an independent 501c6 organization, serving as the sole tourism entity in Eau Claire. The organization works to "Drive economic growth and enhance the quality of life in out community by increasing travel and tourism through destination marketing, thoughtful development, and authentic community partnerships", which Havlicek says cannot be done without following their four pillars; marketing, partnerships, public relations, and development. These goals are crucial in conducting successful efforts that address workforce shortages and continue a cycle of supporting community vitality.
Getting into the numbers, Havlicek wowed the crowd with tourism's economic impact in 2024, a record-breaking $461 million due to events and attractions hosted in Eau Claire. This impact directly supported over 3,900 jobs in the county and generated $31 million in state and local revenue to fund roads, parks, schools, and libraries. Lodging room tax, collected by lodging properties like hotels and Airbnb's, plays a large role in funding destination organizations like Visit Eau Claire. With this tax, municipalities can keep up to 30% of the revenue, with a minimum of 70% going to a tourism entity or commission.
Eau Claire collects an 8% room tax, generating about $2.9 million, with 70% or $2 million forwarded to Visit Eau Claire for tourism promotion and development. Some of this is then allocated to partners like the Chippewa Valley Museum, the Pablo Center at the Confluence, and the Sonnentag Center for their operations. Havlicek is proud to share that "Since 2019, the amount of money going directly to the city has increased by 44%. In 2024, that amounts to nearly $900,000" which the city is currently using to make improvements to the Fairfax city pool and Hobbs ice Arena.
In collaboration with Travel Wisconsin, Havlicek celebrated that, "Since 2019, Visit Eau Claire has secured over $600,000 in Travel Wisconsin grant funding to support tourism events and expand campaign visibility!"
Visit Eau Claire's marketing and public relations efforts have proven to be successful as the destination organization has been featured in major publications such as USA Today, Yahoo News and Midwest Living.
On the topic of Visit Eau Claire's future plans, Havlicek introduced the organization's "Ten Year Destination master Plan" described as, "a road map to our future in how to continue to grow and prioritize our investments in the community", acknowledging that a comprehensive convention center remains a significant gap in the ability to attract larger groups. Havlicek explains that there is awareness of the critical need and it must be addressed to fill a major tourism gap to support future economic growth. Following Kenzi Halicek's presentation, Andrew Nussbaum with Travel Wisconsin generously awarded Visit Eau Claire with a $5,115 Joint Effort Marketing (JEM) grant to fund promotions for events, in this case, Visit Eau Claire's most recent Fall Festival in September.
Andrew Nussbaum, Tourism Development Specialist for the Wisconsin Department of Tourism, joined the Chamber's September Eggs & Issues to inform the Eau Claire community on the impact of tourism throughout the state of Wisconsin. Nussbaum shares Travel Wisconsin's mission and goal as, "We promote and elevate the reputation and brand of Wisconsin to drive economic impact", wanting to get people to ask, "Does Wisconsin look like a FUN place to Visit? Live? Work?".
Reports show that the 20-30 age demographic did not know about the state's scenery, art, culinary, and music scene. Wisconsin is good at the unexpected! Collaborating with an organization called Longwoods International, analytical data for almost all fifty states shows that Wisconsin comes out on top consistently when individuals are asked where they would like to visit.
Statistically, in 2024, there were 114.4 million trips (per individual) in Wisconsin, a record number! The 25-54 age group made up 50% of those Wisconsin travelers. More recently, the summer of 2025 saw the 35-54 age group making up 84% of visitor spending. Looking at spending by sector, 27% was due to lodging, 26% for food and beverage, 19.1% for retail, 14% on transportation, and 13.9% for recreation and entertainment. "About 50-54% of tourism is lodging and dining economic impact", said Nussbaum. Digesting last year's numbers, the total economic impact in the state of Wisconsin was $25.8 billion, $1.7 billion of that in state and local taxes. As Nussbaum states, "What's amazing about that...when we talk about education, transportation, healthcare, retirement, when we talk about all of those things that every municipality has to talk about… well that's 1.7 billion dollars in the state that came from people that do not live in Wisconsin.” Tourism directly benefits the individual. "When you get your taxes, when you get that bill next year for your property tax for your house, theoretically, it will be $678 higher if you didn't have $1.7 billion of tourism into that coffer every year".
Once the month of September hits, Fall marketing is in full swing for Travel Wisconsin. "One way we measure our success is how many people go to [our website]". The organization reaches travelers with advertising, public relations, and social media, boasting an assortment of information and images for the reader including Wisconsin Fall color reports, snow reports, and detailed event pages for counties across the state. "There are people we don't know... and people we haven't met yet... that is what tourism is good for and why we love welcoming people to Eau Claire."
More information:
Presentation Visuals
Visit Eau Claire, Travel Wisconsin discusses tourism and bringing people to Wisconsin(Leader-Telegram $)
Note on article links: A subscription is required for those marked with "$"
Publications known to have article limits or other access restrictions for non-subscribers are marked with "+"
Register for the Chamber's October Eggs & Issues: State Budget & Legislative Update on Friday, October 17, from 7:00 - 8:30 a.m. here
Posted by Gigi Galdamez & Brennen Bolopue, Governmental Affairs Interns
galdamez@eauclairechamber.org, bolopue@eauclairechamber.org