Dane County featured prominently in Wisconsin’s tourism numbers in 2022, according to a recent press release from Destination Madison.
Direct visitor spending grew by 29% to $1.351 billion in 2022, the biggest gain in the state. Dane County also had record-breaking visitor food and beverage spending at $392.9 million and retail spending at $288.9 million. Lodging saw the biggest percentage growth with a 54% jump to $321 million.
These improvements were driven by an increase of 400,000 visitors in 2022. This resulted in $3.7 million per day being spent by visitors to Dane County.
Dane County outpaced the rest of Wisconsin in hospitality employment growth, up 8.5% to 17,946 jobs, and taxes collected from tourism, up 20.3% to $154 million. The county also grew total business sales by 19.2% and labor income by 17.5% — ranking second for both statewide.
Downtown Madison saw the biggest growth in the county with a nearly 50% increase in visitor spending in 2022, for a total of $278 million.Â
