As the Coontail assistant manager and a buyer, Jason Schultz has seen a lot of changes to who is coming to recreate in the Northwoods and what activities are drawing them in.
“We have conversations with people here. So hey, what brings you up that sort of a thing?” said Schultz.
Coontail has locations in Arbor Vitae and Boulder Junction selling a range of outdoor gear, clothing, and equipment.
Schultz says eight years ago when he first started with Coontail, it was primarily people stopping in for water-based activities like buying or renting out kayaks. While there’s still a lot of that, biking has increasingly been driving visitors to the area from places as far away as Texas and Arizona.
WinMan and LAMBO trail systems as well as the Heart of Vilas paved trails are what Schultz hears about the most.
“We started carrying bikes years ago, and we've always rented bikes. That has grown exponentially, just with all these trails being expanded and added, everything from mountain biking to paved trail riding, all of that. Wherever the word is getting out, it’s getting out and people are coming up here,” said Schultz.
He also believes this has led to people spending more time in the Northwoods.
“A lot of people are into these multi-sport. All of a sudden, you've got enough to do that people could fill up an entire week, no problem, and do a variety of activities. It’s really cool that we offer such a diverse variety of things that people can do,” said Schultz.
Those visitors are definitely spending their money here.
Economic impact numbers from the Wisconsin Department of Tourism released this week shows visitors spent more than $302 million in both Oneida and Vilas County, a record for both counties.
Lincoln and Langlade Counties saw record years as well with a roughly two to three percent increase in total economic impact from the year before.
“Any growth is good growth,” said Deena Grabowsky, CEO of the Antigo/Langlade County Chamber of Commerce.
She sees the $58 million visitors spent in the county as a sign that their marketing remains strong and people still seek out Langlade County for the wide variety of trail options.
“I would say our biggest strength is our four-season outdoor recreation. We have an abundance of natural beauty, our forests, our lakes, our rivers, our trails. We have five segments of the Ice Age trail. We have the Wolf River. So those are definitely a strength to our community,” said Grabowsky.
But there’s signs the back-to-back low snow years are taking their toll.
The Northwoods counties that did see growth, didn’t see as great of percentage increase as the last couple of years. Some like Iron and Forest Counties saw decreases in total economic impact.
“It's a major contributor when the snow levels are low,” said Grabowsky.
Snowmobiling and winter silent sport trails didn’t open in the winter of ’23/24. While still below average, the snowfall last winter was enough to open cross country and downhill skiing, and snowmobilers were able to get in a week of riding in Langlade County.
Oneida County Tourism Council Chair Jacqui Sharpe said she was shocked from the Three Lakes perspective when she saw the county numbers come in given the recent winters. Sharpe is also the Executive Director of the Three Lakes Visitor's Bureau.
"Oneida County beat 2023 year over year, which is fantastic. That was not the story here locally. So that really points to the importance of sports tourism and the dome and for all of us that are reliant on outdoor recreation to find ways to continue to bring people here year round, even if they might need to be indoors," said Sharpe.
Sharpe says the Hodag Dome helped bring in visitor's during the winter. It hosted 20 events and upwards of 210 sports teams in 2024.
The Dome's success is sparking conversations about how other local communities could invest in sports facilities or large indoor event spaces to help ensure people will visit year-round.
"To really attract people here year round, we're having to have this new conversation about weatherproofing ourselves and offering indoor spaces, which, again, the dome has proven that. People want to come up here for that reason, and then they'll stay and they'll do some of the other traditional leisure activities," said Sharpe.
Schultz has seen the impact of the poor winter conditions at Coontail with things like fewer snowshoe sales and just less foot traffic in general the last two winters.
But like how summer recreation has diversified with more biking opportunities, Schultz says they’ve already seen the impact when the same can be done for winter recreation like when Boulder Junction created an ice-skating ribbon this past winter.
Coontail started a large rental program for ice skates at its Boulder Junction store.
“That skate ribbon was off the charts popular last year. We were constantly rented out. We added a ton more skates mid-season last year to our rental program. We started selling skates and did really well doing that. So that definitely helps soften the blow from the rough start to the snow year last winter,” said Schultz.
In addition to direct visitor spending, the tourism industry supports more than 6,000 jobs in the region. Visitors also contribute tens of millions of dollars in state and local taxes.
Sharpe says one in about seven jobs in Oneida County are in the tourism industry and more than a fifth of all sales tax in the county comes from visitor spending.
The Department of Tourism estimates each Wisconsin household would have to $678 a year to maintain the current level of government services generated by tourism spending.
“Visitor spending on our lodging, our dining, fuel, shopping is supporting our tourism specific businesses in Langlade County,” said Grabowsky. “Tourism supports local jobs in hospitality, our recreation and their service industries. In 2024, we had 435 jobs in Langlade County that were supported by visitor spending, which is great for our small rural area.”
