|
Hello Destination,
What a year 2023 has been! I wanted to highlight a few of the many initiatives, programs, and activities the DDC team undertook this past year.
We activated our new Feelings Campaign through digital and social media, print and billboards, targeting our high-value visitors. This campaign highlighted the emotions a visitor might feel while traveling from community to community along the peninsula to deliver an aspirational and inspirational brand lifestyle experience, touching all seasons and experiences across our 19 communities.
Art In The Door was launched with a contest designed to highlight the artists of Door County. Their winning masterpieces are featured in current Door County campaigns targeting Green Bay, Appleton, Milwaukee, Madison, Minneapolis and Chicago. The winning artists’ pieces were auctioned off at our Annual Gathering in November and as a result we donated $1,150.00 to the Peninsula Arts & Humanities Alliance. We were also very proud that this program won a Tourism Trailblazer Award from Destinations Wisconsin last month.
Our Annual Destination Guide continues to evolve into an Inspiration Guide, along with our Winter Guidebook highlighting our business partners throughout the County and helping people plan their trips to Door County.
With our Earned Media program, we welcomed over 50 travel journalists to Door County to explore and share their experiences with readers around the globe. The millions of impressions earned from these efforts provide us with additional exposure we wouldn’t be able to achieve without. See a few highlights here.
The Lands End Influencer program was a first for us this year and it coupled influencers with our destination to create engaging social content along with visuals that you will see in upcoming Lands End and Door County marketing.
We invested in Door County’s parks by partnering with local municipalities, the county parks friends’ groups and all five state parks friends’ groups to provide dollars for park improvements and enhancements. We have also set up a State Parks Challenge grant initiative being facilitated by the Door County Community Foundation, where DDC will match up to $50,000 for each State Park Friends Group. The total amount that will be invested back into our Parks will reach $800,000.
We were also a 2023 Spotlight site chosen by the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics as one of only 15 sites chosen throughout the US. Over three days, visitors and locals took part in this stewardship initiative hosted by the Subaru/Leave No Trace Traveling Team in collaboration with DDC and Peninsula State Park staff.
Our EV Charging Stations Grant Program supports the installation of new or additional EV charging stations or the upgrade of existing charging stations to Level 2 or 3. Any business, non-profit organization or government entity was able to apply for one award per calendar year. Each approved project was awarded $1000. Eight projects were awarded in each quarter throughout 2023.
As sustainable development is one of three key pillars we are focusing on, these mini-grants provide our community an opportunity to show how tourism dollars can benefit us all.
The Door County Community Investment Fund was created this past year to use a portion of the room tax dollars paid by overnight visitors to fund grants for projects that improve the quality of life in Door County. The projects must first comply with WI room tax laws and enhance the visitor experience. The Door County Community Foundation facilitates the program for us and within the first year, we have granted $828,917. The next deadline for applications will be January 4, 2024. We look forward to continuing this program and highlighting the importance of the visitor economy.
The Door County Destination Stewardship Plan is being created to bring together all our communities to create a shared vision and strategic path forward for the future of tourism in the region. This plan will be the outcome of a community-driven process initiated by Destination Door County and guided by a Steering Committee of local community leaders representing a variety of sectors and interests. We gathered stakeholders and resident feedback through online surveys, focus groups, interviews and in-person and virtual town halls to begin to establish a vision and path forward for the stewardship of Door County. We will be releasing this plan in the first quarter of 2024 to help guide sustainable growth and development in Door County for the next several years. It will take all of us together to continue moving this actionable plan forward.
There are so many more programs I could mention! Our team is always here for you to help in any way we can! Coming together is the beginning, keeping together is progress, and working together is success! Our visitor economy’s success is dependent on all of us working together.
Enjoy your family and friends this holiday season!
I look forward to seeing you out and about!
| 
