SHAWANO, Wis. — There haven’t been many off days for Jeff Kammerer and the staff at Great Wolf Tubing Co. in Shawano in the past month.
Hot summer weather has kept a steady flow of customers coming through the business on the banks of the Wolf River.
“You never know who is going to show up. Saturday, we had a great turnout. We came in the morning and were guessing maybe 200, 300 (people) and the next thing you know you’ve just got cars pulling in and you’ve got 500 people here,” said Kammerer, who is the owner. “It’s just the adrenaline you get. We’re exhausted at the end of the day, but we’re all happy. It’s kind of a team thing, ‘we just put 500 people on the water.’”
Those kinds of numbers are records for the business Kammerer purchased five years ago.
“That was big for us,” he said about the long Fourth of July weekend. “I think we put about 1,500 people in the water to enjoy the Wolf River this weekend.”
The economic impact of tourism was up about 13% in Shawano County last year and up 5% in Menominee County.
Shawano Country Tourism Manager Michelle Eron said summer traffic is strong.
“It’s been coming back from COVID, that was obviously a hit to everybody in the state with tourism,” she said. “People want to get out again. They want to regain their passions or maybe find a new driver into recreation to try something new.”
Outdoor recreation is one of the draws to the region.
“People, when we find out they want to book a trip here to Shawano, a lot has to do with our water, Shawano Lake being our main waterway,” Eron said. “But there are tons of other little lakes surrounding our area that bring tourists in. Sometimes they come for a day trip, maybe a little staycation in the state. Or they come and book a cabin for a week or stay a couple days at our hotels.”
Kammerer said his business is one piece of a wider community effort to welcome visitors in Shawano and Menominee counties.
“Eighty five percent of our business comes from people not in Shawano,” he said. “The people who were just outside the door a few minutes ago were from Sheboygan. We had people come from Chicago just to go tubing during COVID and people who are on vacation looking for something to do.”