Episode 04
State of Tourism with AJ Frels, Explore La Crosse
About BizCast Greater La Crosse
We bring you news from the business community. From startups to experienced problem solvers, you’ll get in-depth insight on the challenges and opportunities of doing business in Greater La Crosse. Our show is a collaboration between WIZMNews.com and BizNews Greater La Crosse ( GreaterLaCrosse.media ).
Transcript
AJ Frels 0:00
An overnight stay, on average, spent about $160 per person. That’s what we want to see. It’s all about the heads and beds for us.
Vicki Markussen 0:11
Welcome to Greater La Crosse BizCast — -news from the business community. I’m your host, Vicki Markussen. The U.S. Travel Association reports that travel spending is up 3%. Hotel spending is static at 11%. And meeting planners are optimistic. Joining me today is AJ Frels. He is head of Explore La Crosse, also explorelacrosse.com is how people can find it. And it’s also known as the La Crosse County Convention and Visitor’s Bureau. So AJ, how do those statistics echo what we’re seeing here locally,
AJ Frels 0:41
I would say that those are pretty consistent. And we’re experiencing the same type of trend here locally in our region. People are wanting to travel. They’ve been cooped up for a while. As I’ve said in the past, people are just wanting to get out and experience things. Experience is what it’s all about right now. It really is. But tourism is back with a vengeance. There’s no doubt about it. Our lodging partners are seeing a good spike in their occupancy as well as the ADR because of supply and demand. ADR being average daily rate. So, it’s, it’s strong.
Vicki Markussen 1:17
Excellent. Well, that’s what we like to hear. One of the industries that a lot of people were concerned was going to rebound is that business, the business travel? Because that’s a lot of the Monday through Thursday business. So how is that doing? And why is that important to our community,
AJ Frels 1:32
Business travel is extremely important. That it is down. Every report will tell you that it’s down. Our lodging partners will tell you that it’s down. Our restaurant partners will tell you that it’s down because they’re not seeing that traffic on the weekdays in the evenings or so forth or for lunch. And, you know, I think a big impact to that is the virtual meetings that are happening. There is no doubt that some of these businesses have figured out that, you know, if we don’t have to pay for the travel expense, and so forth, and you can check in with people online, then you’ve got to, you got to save a few dollars. Our restaurants or shops or, or stores or gas stations, everybody feels that. And you know, I ran hotels and was in the lodging industry for 21 years. You can’t make it on two or three days a week. It’s tough. We’re doing everything we can to try to help bring that back. But again, you know, the almighty dollar speaks when the corporations have figured out a way to save a few bucks, and everybody wants to do that – that’s business, we all go in business to make money – we will continue the path to figure out and try to help our restaurants and stores and so forth and lodging partners.
Vicki Markussen 2:41
For those weekdays, some of the business travel is just people coming visiting local customers here in town, but also conventions, how have you seen conventions coming back?
AJ Frels 2:51
Conventions, if you talk to the La Crosse Center or the Omni Center, the La Crescent Area Event Center, they will tell you that they are seeing that slowly coming back. When I say slowly, it’s back pretty strong. Now, there was definitely a lag there that we experience from the leisure travel compared to the meetings and conventions. Even some of the sporting events were a little hesitant to start coming back. But I think that that gate is opened up pretty strong right now. I think we’re seeing a lot of activity for those type of groups or organizations that come back. Those groups when we bring in a large conference has such a huge impact. It’s just it’s just enormous. What we love about that is our sales team or the sales teams from the event centers were able to make one contact with the facilitator and bring in 200 people, if not 3000 people. If you talk about something like Moses, it is 3000 plus. So that impact is huge. And then there’s the spin off. That happens from those conventions, those large meetings because I know I’ve done it myself. I’m a prime example. I bet you have to as well Vicki, that you go somewhere, and you come home, and you’re looking at your family, significant other or whoever it may be – friends – and you say, “I found a really cool place.” We all know that the La Crosse Region is a really cool place. And “I gotta show this to you. I want to share with you the fun and excitement that I had when I got to discover such an awesome, awesome region.”
Vicki Markussen 4:25
It was interesting because someone did write a letter to the newspaper and said, “What is happening with Oktoberfest hotel prices” right? So, how much does supply and demand impact the hotel rooms?
AJ Frels 4:35
Supply demand always impacts hotel rooms. When I was an operator, you’re not going to give a hotel room away if you can. You’re in business, again, you’re in business to make those dollars. You’ve got to constantly find that fine line of what’s too much, what’s not enough. When can I, you know you’re talking to an old farm boy here, so you’ve got to make hay when the sun shines. That’s what you do, as they have done. If you look at our numbers this year from the Smith Travel Report, they have done a tremendous job. They, being the lodging partners, have done a tremendous job at managing their facilities. And, you know, hats off to all of them. Remember that that drives, you know, local and state tax dollars right here for our local economy.
That’s a good segue into how you’re funded. How do you make all of these wonderful things happen and people appear?
We don’t make them happen by ourselves. We do it with our partners. We talk about the restaurants, the shops, the lodging partners, the festivals and events, all the arts that we have to offer in the area, I’m sure I’m leaving something out. Making sure that we’re informed with what they’re trying to do so we can get the word out for them on what they’re producing, or what they’re putting out there to attract people. I always say it’s all about heads and beds. So, we want to drive the overnight stay to generate the room tax dollars, which helps everyone. According to the Department of Tourism, an overnight stay. Folks that are traveling and stay for the night, on average, spent about $160 per person. That’s what we want to see. We want to keep them there versus around 65 or so dollars if they’re here just for the day, or what we refer to as a Day Tripper. It’s all about the heads and beds for us and getting them here, then seeing those room tax dollars generated. We do get a portion of the room tax dollars, that’s 96% of our funding. Room tax that you pay as a person’s checking into the hotel room, we do get 32% of the total room tax dollars collected from each municipality, so we can do our thing. Each municipality is also by statute able to retain 30% for their general fund as well.
Vicki Markussen 6:33
Is there a missing 30% in there?
AJ Frels 6:34
There are some opportunities for some other ways to use it. In La Crosse’s situation, they are using a fairly good portion of that as well to help with the debt service on the La Crosse Center.
Vicki Markussen 6:47
Essentially, you are getting money from tourists to attract more tourists. And then it also is a tax relief for a lot of the municipalities that they are spending money in. And you know where they’re coming from, right?
AJ Frels 7:00
We know that they’re coming from the Chicagoland area Milwaukee, Green Bay, Madison, Twin Cities, Des Moines is becoming stronger and stronger. We have a new system, and it is called Zartico. It’s able to generally, I don’t want anybody to think that we’re getting too much information, cell phone movement, and mass. So if we run an ad, and we decide to see how that ad has produced, we can see the traffic on the phones and how many people are coming to this area. We will be able to see how many people came here for Oktoberfest and where they came from. How long did they stay here? Where do they travel in our area, besides just the fest grounds. We’ll be able to do that for Country Boom, for the fair in West Salem, for fishing tournaments.
We know we talked to people for the fishing tournaments. They drive up from Kentucky to see Bassmasters
Vicki Markussen 7:48
Wow
AJ Frels 7:49
For the trolley tours that we just started, folks from South Dakota that were here visiting. This system is going to allow us to not just hit-and-miss as we talked to people, but really see that traffic, see how they’re moving around the community, when they’re here, how long they stay here, and how frequently they come back. But I think the most important thing that I’m excited about finding out is where they’re not coming from, and are we spending dollars to market to a community that we’re just not seeing any ROI. Why is that? Do we need to change up our ads? Do we need to figure out what it is that they’re interested in? Is it just a community, is probably not our market? Who knows, we’re going to make ourselves quite a bit smarter with this system. We can be good stewards of those room tax dollars and spend them appropriately and as wisely as possible.
Vicki Markussen 8:36
Another tool that utilizes influencers, people who travel and write about.
AJ Frels 8:41
It has helped tremendously, and we see strong traffic with it. Haley Doyle, our director of marketing and media, she is constantly looking at things like Zartico or Sherpa, which is influencer program, if you will. The Sherpa program is also an itinerary building program so people and local folks can do this. You can go on our website, you can check it out. You can build an itinerary of things to do in the area because everybody wants to know what influencers really help people do, is everybody wants to travel like a local. Everybody wants to find that secluded, beautiful spot to look at the Mississippi River from the top of the bluff somewhere. Everybody wants to find the best hamburger in town. You know, where’s the best place to eat? Who’s got the best wings? Who’s got the best old-fashioned or Bloody Mary?
Vicki Markussen 9:28
Time for my common closer. What makes you passionate about what you do?
AJ Frels 9:33
I love working with people. I really enjoy engaging and selling in an area that I love, but it’s just a gorgeous area.
Vicki Markussen 9:39
As the saying goes, If it’s a great place for tourists to come, it’s a great place to live. We always talk about not being the hidden gem, and Explore La Crosse is helping make that happen. Thank you for joining us on BizCast – news from the business community. We’ll catch you next week.
