U.P. Tourism Shifts

As tourism emerges as an industry in the U.P., the reasons people are visiting the region are changing.

Northern Initiatives, and communities throughout the U.P., paid for an independent, third-party survey of tourists.

More than 2,400 visitors to the eastern U.P., Ontonagon County and Gogebic County took the poll.

78% were visiting the U.P. as part of a recreational trip.

Northern Initiatives says this is a big shift from a decade ago.

They say at that time, visitors’ primary reason for a trip to the U.P. was to see family or friends.

49% said they’d visited the U.P. three or more times in the last year, and 96% said they’d recommend the U.P. as a travel destination.