In these tough economic times every little bit of money into our local economy matters. The odds of the government offering our local businesses a bailout aren’t good so we need to take care of ourselves and each other in order to thrive and survive. We can all help each other by treating the tourists who visit our area with some old fashioned Cook County hospitality.
In Cook County, travelers spend approximately $50,835,223.00 annually, supporting 904 jobs and generating $3,064,378.00 in tax revenue.
Many businesses benefit from these expenditures. Hotels/ motels, resorts, outfitters, campgrounds and B&Bs all rely on travelers for their business success, but many more “Main Street” businesses in our communities receive significant income from visitors: restaurants, shops, service stations, grocery stores, museums and theaters, and more.
In Minnesota, tourism generates $11 billion for the state economy and $679 million in sales tax revenue that benefits state residents. The leisure and hospitality industry accounts for 247,800 jobs across the state, almost 11% of private sector employment, with $3.9 billion in wages. Every county across the state feels the positive economic impact of tourism.
The businesses and organizations in our community work hard to attract visitors to our area. While planting a tree or running a race may not be your cup of tea for some it’s the perfect reason to visit our area. These visitors may sometimes drive too slowly for our hurried pace, or clog our favorite eating establishments or ask us silly questions but they are helping to keep businesses in our area going.
An estimated 39 million people travel in Minnesota each year. Attracting some of those visitors to Cook County is the first step, treating them with exceptional customer service is the next step. If we want our friends, neighbors and community members to be happy then we need to work together to make sure our visitors are kept happy too. Then these visitors will return to Cook County again and again making life in Cook County good for us all.
Sue Prom
Grand Marais
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