Tomahawk’s Merrill Chambers highlights successes, looks to the future
Jalen Maki
MMC Staff
Lincoln County saw tourism reach an all-time high in 2023.
The Wisconsin Tourism Office released 2023 economic data on Tuesday, June 11, showing tourism had a record-high $25 billion impact across Wisconsin, making it the best tourism year in the state’s history.
Wisconsin is coming off a record year, with tourism generating $23.7 billion in economic impact in 2022.
Lincoln County also had its best tourism year ever. The economic impact generated by tourism in Lincoln County in 2023 totaled $109 million, surpassing the $103 million recorded in 2022.
The historic year for tourism in Wisconsin was driven by growing economic impact in all 72 counties, a second consecutive year of record-breaking overnight stays and investments in tourism goods and services, according to a release from the Merrill Area Chamber of Commerce.
According to the Merrill Chamber of Commerce, tourism in Lincoln County supported 665 part-time and full-time jobs across various sectors of the industry last year, part of the more than 178,000 jobs that tourism supports statewide.
Tourism in Lincoln County also generated $6 million in local and state tax revenue in 2023. Statewide, tourism generated $1.6 billion in local and state tax revenue last year.
“Without this revenue, Wisconsin households would pay an additional $660 to maintain their current level of government services,” the Merrill Lynch Chamber of Commerce said.
“As a chamber of commerce and tourism center, we see great benefits from building stronger strategic partnerships with the City of Merrill, Lincoln County and the Tomahawk Area Chamber of Commerce to promote tourism to our local community,” said Clyde Nelson, executive director of the Merrill Chamber of Commerce.
“We are excited to see the hard work of so many Lincoln County organizations come to fruition,” the Tomahawk Area Chamber of Commerce said in a statement.
“Lincoln County is the gateway to the Northwoods,” the Tomahawk Chamber of Commerce said, “It’s the ultimate success to see hard work pay off. Tourism is a big part of the Tomahawk area’s economic success, and as a chamber of commerce we strive to support local businesses by attracting tourism dollars to the area.”
The Tomahawk Chamber of Commerce added that the relationships it has with Tomahawk Main Street, Inc. and other local partners have helped the area’s tourism success, noting that without these partnerships working toward similar goals, “these numbers would not have been as high as they are.”
“We share Lincoln County’s success with the Merrill Chamber of Commerce,” the Tomahawk Chamber of Commerce said in a statement. “The efforts of both chambers have been extremely successful each year, and we look forward to expanding our partnership with the Merrill Chamber and continuing to promote Lincoln County together.”
To learn more about Wisconsin’s record-breaking year for tourism and to view 2023 economic data, including a county-by-county breakdown, visit industry.travelwisconsin.com/research/economic-impact.
“With the help of our local publishing team, MMC LLC and Foto News, we saw an opportunity to expand the size of our 2023 Visitor’s Guide to make it more visible on stands across Wisconsin and surrounding states and to better showcase what Merrill has to offer. We also printed more copies of the guide to distribute to more visitor centers and events,” said Nelson. “Our community is a wonderful place with so much to offer and a great place not only to visit but to live and work. We encourage you to visit our website, merrillchamber.org, to find out what’s happening in Merrill and the surrounding area.”
