Travel, Tourism Week kickoff; VISIT Milwaukee, MKE tout community impact
MILWAUKEE - VISIT Milwaukee and Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport (MKE) joined together on Monday, May 8, to "emphasize to local stakeholders how the travel industry moves Milwaukee forward," a news release says.
Officials say MKE has a $3 billion economic impact on the community. Each visitor flying into and out of Milwaukee creates a $400 economic impact each day they are in town.
"I’m here for business this week," said Kevin Hunter, who is traveling for work. "This is what we do for a living; we travel for our client," Hunter said.
Hunter said flying twice a week is something he could never cover on his own.
"Travel has gotten super expensive, and employees can’t travel on their own dime," said Hunter. "That’s just not possible."
Milwaukee County employees, in years past, have had a choice of which airport to begin any travel for work. Now the county is changing that.
Milwaukee County said its employees' air travel is on the county dime - but with a new exception, they must fly in and out of Milwaukee's airport.
Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley
"Effective today, all Milwaukee County employees to travel by air on county business are now required to begin and end that air travel right here at MKE," said Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley. "This is a logical change. If the county's paying for employees to travel, they must use our community's airport."
In 2022, airport officials said they had 5.5 million passengers with an average of 246 flights per day.
Milwaukee County said the board could soon be filling up with this new policy, adding dozens of flights, hundreds of new jobs, and millions of dollars to Wisconsin's economy.
"But we have to have the foot traffic and the amount of passengers to see those things in the future," said Crowley.
Crowley said when it comes to employee travel, it's not a lot, but they have a budget for it.
"These are dollars where we pay for travel anyway," Crowley said. "We have different types of conferences that people may go to."
He said this change doesn't just impact county workers but also the public.
"By utilizing MKE International, your dollars that you spend, are going to good uses," said Crowley. "We have some of the best customer service for folks, hospitality."
Hunter said it's the reason he chooses to fly into Milwaukee and not Chicago.
"This is a very functional airport, easy to use," said Hunter.
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The county executive also called on all local businesses and governments to follow the county's lead – and fly out of MKE instead of other airports in the region.
VISIT Milwaukee’s 2023 National Travel & Tourism Week celebrations include:
- Announcement of hospitality-focused episode of the Work in MKE Podcast from Experience Milwaukee.
- A recognition event for VISIT Milwaukee’s 200+ volunteers, some of whom have been volunteering for the tourism bureau for over 25 years, on Tuesday, May 9
- The launch of the Cream City Convention Pass on Wednesday, May 10
- A City of Festivals-themed ticket giveaway taking place on VISIT Milwaukee’s social channels on Thursday, May 11
- The release of VISIT Milwaukee’s latest collaboration videos featuring Milwaukee Bucks star Bobby Portis on Friday, May 12
The news release says across the country, 8 million workers are directly employed within the travel industry, which supports a total of 15 million American jobs. In the Greater Milwaukee area, travel and tourism support over 41,000 jobs with employees coming from all corners of the metro area.