THU AM News: Milwaukee Co. tops the list for county-level tourism impacts; State has had 211,000 small business applications under Biden, officials say

June 13, 2024

— Milwaukee County had the largest economic impact from tourism of any Wisconsin county last year with nearly $4.2 billion, state figures show.

That’s 6.2% higher than the county’s $3.9 billion total from 2022, and includes about $2.3 billion in direct consumer spending.

State officials this week announced 2023 was another record year for tourism activity in Wisconsin, with a $25 billion total economic impact. That’s up 5.4% from the $23.7 billion in 2022. The announcement also noted all 72 counties saw year-over-year growth in the economic impact of tourism.

While Milwaukee County had the largest total, four other counties exceeded the $1 billion mark: Dane County, with $2.6 billion; Sauk County, $2 billion; Waukesha County, $1.7 billion; and Brown County, $1.3 billion.

Destination Madison, the tourism organization for Dane County and Madison, says its direct visitor spending total hit $1.5 billion last year for the first time, driven by a 9.9% increase in spending. The county also added nearly 900 jobs in the hospitality industry, a 4.8% increase. And the report shows Dane County exceeded the state’s overall growth average across all categories.

“The robust meetings, events and sports audiences were complemented by droves of leisure visitors, giving Madison and Dane County a well-rounded visitor profile that we will build upon in 2024 and beyond,” Destination Madison President & CEO Ellie Westman Chin said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Visit Milwaukee is touting the increase in direct consumer tourism in the county, pointing to the impact of the Milwaukee Bucks, Brewers, Admirals and Wave sports teams, USA Triathlon’s Milwaukee event, “continued high volumes” of cruise ship visitors and concerts and festivals.

The four-county greater Milwaukee area contributed nearly $6.4 billion to the state’s overall tourism figure for 2023, accounting for more than a fourth of the total. The area’s previous record of just over $6 billion was set the previous year, according to a release.

Visit Milwaukee President and CEO Peggy Williams-Smith says “we are looking forward to continued growth” this year.

“Milwaukee has so much going for us — the stunning Baird Center expansion is now open, ‘Top Chef’ Showing the world the caliber of our culinary scene, and all the major events happening here in 2024, I’m positive that our trend of year-over-year increases will continue,” Smith said in a statement.

Sauk County’s visitors website highlights the area’s natural beauty and glacial bluffs, as well as the Wisconsin Dells/Lake Delton area, which boasts a number of waterparks and entertainment destinations. The county had a 1.4% increase in total tourism impact over the year, with $1.6 billion of its total coming from direct spending. That amount increased 0.6% year-over-year.

And Brown County, home of the Green Bay Packers, saw a 4.7% increase in tourism impact over the year, with about $800 million coming from consumer spending. Discover Green Bay’s website notes it’s the smallest city in the country to host a professional sports team, and also highlights the city’s wineries, botanical gardens, zoo and walleye fishing.

Outside of the top-performing counties, economic impact totals range from Walworth County’s $954 million down to Menomonee County’s $6 million.

— Wisconsin has had 211,000 small business applications filed under President Joe Biden, according to federal officials.

The White House yesterday announced 18 million new small business applications have been filed nationally under the president’s tenure, based on the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics figures. Officials provided the state-level figure during a call with reporters.

“We’ve seen new record highs for business applications each of the past three years,” Lael Brainard, director of the National Economic Council, said yesterday. “Small businesses have been at the heart of the president’s economic agenda since day one. The small business boom is powering economic comeback stories in towns and cities across America.”

And Isabella Guzman, administrator for the U.S. Small Business Administration, said “this isn’t just a COVID rebound” or an outlier.

“It’s 90% faster than pre-pandemic averages, and the trend shows no sign of slowing whatsoever,” she said.

— Up to 9 billion tons of CO2 will need to be removed from the atmosphere each year by the middle of the century to meet climate goals under the Paris Agreement, according to a recent report from UW-Madison authors.

The 2024 State of Carbon Dioxide Removal report, which involved researchers with the university’s La Follette School of Public Affairs and Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, says carbon dioxide removal “has a critical role to play” in efforts to limit global warming.

To keep global temperature increases below 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels, the report says carbon dioxide removal methods “must increase fourfold” by 2050. Current CDR efforts remove about 2 billion tons per year, largely through conventional approaches such as planting trees.

Newer methods, such as capturing and storing carbon directly from the air, currently remove just 1.3 million tons per year — less than 0.1% of the total.

UW-Madison Prof. Gregory Nemet says “rapid and deep reductions” in carbon emissions are needed regardless of how much carbon removal can be ramped up in the coming years.

“But we can only avoid dangerous global temperatures if we scale up carbon removal to very large scale over the next two decades — and meeting that level requires active policymaking in the near term,” he said in the university’s release.

The report warns of a “slowdown” in CDR development, though research and investment in this area is ongoing. Authors argue this is linked to a lack of commitment by government bodies, as most policies are mainly focused on reducing emissions.

See the release.

— UW-Madison researchers have developed a new method for imaging the placenta as well as maternal and fetal blood flow, enabling earlier diagnosis of various conditions.

WARF is touting the new method as a top licensing prospect, and is seeking commercial partners to help develop this approach. Invented by Prof. Mark Kliever from the university’s Department of Radiology, it offers an “unprecedented” view of placental health within the body, according to an overview from the patenting and licensing organization.

Current approaches to detecting abnormalities in the placenta use ultrasound imaging or magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI. But the overview notes neither of these methods “provides a clear enough picture” for diagnosing certain conditions.

These include one called placenta “accreta spectrum,” in which the placenta grows too far into the uterus wall and can’t detach during childbirth, and another called placental insufficiency, which can restrict fetal growth.

“More specifically, neither modality enables enough resolution to distinguish maternal blood flow from fetal blood flow, which is necessary to properly diagnose and develop a clinical course of action,” authors wrote.

To improve on these options, Kliever created a way to image both the placental anatomy and maternal and fetal bloodflow, using an iron deficiency treatment called ferumoxytol and image post-processing techniques. It involves overlaying MR images of the placenta at different intensities, according to the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.

“Depiction of this anatomy in vivo is unprecedented and can provide new insights into placental function, allowing possible therapeutic interventions,” authors wrote. “It provides the opportunity to make pathologic diagnoses during pregnancy, which were previously possible only after birth. This knowledge could lead to tailored therapeutic interventions during gestation.”

The new method has applications in diagnosing both of the harmful placenta conditions during pregnancy, as well as linking structural imaging during pregnancy to post-delivery diagnosis to establish early markers for placental disease.

See more in the patent.

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— State officials held a groundbreaking for Kikkoman’s $560 million manufacturing facility project in Jefferson, touting the Japanese company’s economic impact in Wisconsin.

Together with the company’s planned $250 million expansion of its existing Walworth facility, the soy sauce maker is planning more than $800 million in investments in the state, according to yesterday’s release from Gov. Tony Evers. The new facility is slated to begin shipping soy sauce in fall 2026.

WEDC will provide up to $15.5 million in performance-based tax credits for this effort, which is expected to create at least 83 new jobs in the state over the next 12 years. These incentives were announced in April.

Kikkoman Chairman and honorary CEO Yuzaburo Mogi said the groundbreaking marks the company’s commitment to Jefferson and the state.

“Kikkoman believes in Wisconsin, and we are grateful to this great state for believing in us,” he said in a statement. “Our collaboration began half a century ago as a leap of faith, and today, it continues as a promise of continued growth and cultural connection.”

See the release.

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