Visit Milwaukee speaks on city's growth in tourism ahead of National Travel and Tourism Week



MILWAUKEE -- This upcoming week is National Travel and Tourism Week and Milwaukee has a lot to celebrate. Kristin Settle with Visit Milwaukee talks about the city's growth in tourism last year.

VISIT Milwaukee today released final data from the Wisconsin Department of Tourism indicating strong growth in the tourism market for 2017. The data continues to show that Milwaukee is the state`s largest tourism market, accounting for 20 percent of total tourism economic impact to the state. Also, Milwaukee welcomed 23 million visitors last year

In the Greater Milwaukee (4 county MWOW) area:
• Total business sales related to tourism were estimated at $5.4 billion ($3.5 billion in MKE Co alone)
• Tourism supported 51,200 full-time jobs - enough to fill the new Bucks arena 3 times!
• Direct visitor spending in 2017 totaled $3 billion
• Total labor income from tourism was $1.6 billion
• State and local tax revenue generated by tourism was $360 million - saving locals hundreds on their property taxes