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Following is the reprint of the article published in the Door County Advocate ...
Doyle offers tourism strategies
Egg Harbor resort hosts governor on Friday
By Ramelle Bintz
Door County Advocate
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Door County, in the words of Governor Jim Doyle, is a microcosm of the state, growing both its tourism and manufacturing industries while preserving the environment.
Doyle made his remarks Friday, July 11, at Landmark Resort in Egg Harbor.
The governor, accompanied by state Tourism Secretary Kelli Tremble, spoke to about 60 people connected with the county tourism industry.
Doyle outlined strategies to improve tourism in Door County and Wisconsin.
Doyle touted the recent signing of the Great Lakes Compact as an opportunity to partner with the federal government. The lakes, he added, may now demand as much federal money as the Everglades.
"We'll need a strong partner in cleaning up old municipal wastewater systems," Doyle said. "It's far from over. You can't clean up the Great Lakes by signing a piece of paper."
Preserving shipping on the Great Lakes is important, Doyle said, and regulations between the states needs to be identical so no state loses an advantage over another.
Threats to the Great Lakes from states that need water are not the only concern, Doyle continued. Water-quality issues, such as invasive species and pollution, also threaten lakes, he said.
Those problems directly tie manufacturing and tourism industries in the waters of Green Bay and Lake Michigan, he said.
Addressing a current topic, Doyle praised the federal government for its response, through the Federal Emergency Management Agency, to flooding in 30 counties in southeastern Wisconsin.
"Whatever lessons they had to learn from Katrina, they learned," Doyle said.
For the Wisconsin floods, FEMA had "400 people in the state going house to house," he said. The teams "processed 25,000 of the 30,000 applications for various types of help."
The water table in Spring Green is still full, Doyle said, and every inch of rain that falls continues to flood the area.
Trumble said the flooding is the main reason the state Tourism Department launched a midsummer marketing campaign in the Chicago market.
The national attention led many people outside the state to believe Door County and other areas of the state were under water, Trumble said.
Six days ago, her department launched a television campaign in Chicago, and Doyle took out a full page ad in Sunday's Chicago Tribune. Digital billboards also are running in Chicago, Milwaukee and Minneapolis, promoting Wisconsin's "original people, places and possibilities."
"Door County is a great platform on how we sell Wisconsin - where originality rules," Trumble said. "How do you talk about a state where you're wearing cheese on your head, and are the forerunner in stem cell research?"
Municipal leaders in Door County earned Trumble's praise for working together on the county room tax, and increasing the budget for marketing from $250,000 to $1.6 million.
"You are doing absolutely the right thing by pooling your resources and pulling ahead and marketing as a region," she said.
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