A different approach to marketing Northwoods winter recreation has come out of a state-funded survey.
The five county, three-year study was funded by the Department of Tourism for Vilas, Oneida, Forest, Lincoln and Langlade counties. Milwaukee area residents showed not only a liking for snowmobiling and ice fishing, but silent sports showed strong favor, says Kim Baltus of the Minocqua Area Chamber of Commerce...
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"....we tried to broaden our adverstising and promotion to include places such as Minocqua Winter Park or....one of our lit trails in the Minocqua area.It was important to us to get that word out as well...."
All five counties have extensive silent sports trails, but the survey showed not as many respondents were aware of that fact. The survey showed some of the silent sports folks don't necessarily like being around motorized winter sports.
Baltus says a key point was even though travelers stay in one community, they often go to other nearby communities for activities...
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"....where they will travel an hour to an hour-and-a-half throughout the Northwoods. I think this has made the other Chambers realize...certainly we want to promote our own areas, but we also want to understand the importance of those people who are interested in taking day trips...."
Snowshoeing and cross-country skiing were key attractions in the survey.
