- The Minocqua Chamber of
Commerce is keeping a
watchful eye on the impact
of COVID-19. With
the Memorial Day weekend in
the rearview mirror, what was
learned to move forward for
the rest of this summer
season?
Krystal Westfahl is the
Executive Director of the
Minocqua Chamber of Commerce.
We spoke with her earlier
this week. And, Krystal,
thank you very much for being
with us.
- Thank you for having me.
- So what was Memorial Day
weekend like?
Was it busy?
- Surprisingly, yes.
We actually were a little taken
aback by how busy it
actually was.
We knew that folks
were looking to
come here early on when the
safer-at-home orders were put
in place both in Illinois and
Wisconsin.
We had seen a rush of folks
coming up, especially for
second homeowner, those
second homeowners.
We were not tracking
leisure travel quite as
closely. We knew we were
having second homeowners
coming up. Resorts,
they were still going strong.
They could socially distance,
but leisure travel actually
spiked.
And we had,
on average, pretty close to a
normal Memorial Day weekend
up here.
- Wow. That is actually
amazing to hear.
What steps are businesses
taking to stay safe both
for their employees,
but for their customers as
well?
- Well, we certainly have
a mixed bag up here.
You know, with the Supreme
Court ruling coming so close
to Memorial Day weekend, some
of our businesses were just
completely unprepared
for opening as
quickly as they needed to be.
Personal protective equipment
for themselves, their
employees and visitors
were a scarcity within
our small businesses.
You know, we're talking, you
know, two or three employees
per retail
shop, you know,
and small, tight quarters.
These are old businesses
that have been around for a
long time, old building
structures. So social
distancing was
something that we were all
working through kind of on
the fly.
I would say that,
you know, it was split
almost by thirds
with people that were not
opening because they just
weren't ready.
Those that were going to be
open due to the fact
that they had sort
of already been preparing for
this.
And then thirdly, we had some
businesses that were just
able to, you know, kind
of make it work.
So it was all across the
board.
We were just really
encouraging folks to
call ahead. Make sure that
the business they were going
to be going to
was open and able to
accommodate what they needed.
- How were any of the
restrictions being met
by the visitors
who were coming into town?
- That
is also a mixed bag.
We noticed on average
in the Northwoods as a whole,
not just in the
Minocqua/Arbor Vitae/Woodruff
area which I support,
but all the way up through
Boulder Junction, Sayner-Star
Lake, Presque Isle,
all the way up to the border.
We were seeing businesses
reporting,
you know, folks not
social distancing, no masks
being worn to
the other extreme
where people were just coming
up and staying, you
know, in their resort,
not leaving the place that
they were coming to visit.
So, again, it was just--it
was a matter of extremes
through the weekend between
businesses and visitors.
A lot of folks didn't know
quite what they were supposed
to be doing at this point, I
think.
- So is there a certain amount
of trepidation on the part of
the local community as
tourists flock back
into the area?
Or is this exactly what
businesses have been waiting
for?
- Again, it's a matter of
extremes.
We do have a lot of locals
that, you know, are
letting us know daily that
they are nervous about this.
We do have a rural
hospital system and
we know certainly an
older population, you
know, per capita.
So we're looking
at that
with worried eyes.
But I'm thinking that the
people that are able to take
the steps to make sure that
they are safe are going to
continue to be safe.
So, you know, we have had
a little bit of a, you know,
a clash, I would say, between
locals and tourism
and what they're looking
to the tourists to
do on
a local standpoint and the
tourists thinking that this
is the same vacation they've
always experienced and they
want to continue to come up
to the Northwoods and
experience that same
vacation, that same
experience.
From Oneida County's
standpoint, I'm part
of a tourism council,
multiple chambers of commerce
prior to Memorial
Day weekend, we actually put
together a PR
piece to be played on the
local news to talk about
making sure that everybody is
personally responsible
and to be nice.
There are a lot of people
that are afraid right now,
and we want everyone to, you
know, be nice to one another.
That's what we pride
ourselves on here in the
Northwoods.
- In the absence of statewide
safer-at-home rules, you
spoke about businesses having
to kind of scramble
when that ended so
soon before Memorial Day.
Do you wish there
were firm kind of local
orders that would
give guidance?
- I think we do have local
orders that give guidance.
I think the bigger issue
is that if people aren't
following those those
guidelines,
there are no repercussions.
So they are just guidelines.
So businesses can do --
follow those or they
may not.
- What lessons were
learned from the Memorial
Day weekend?
I know that some tourist
spots in the state are kind
of rethinking some of their
distancing methods.
- Yeah, that is something
that we are actually
discussing today
through a countywide
phone call with our local
businesses to find out what
were the things that they
learned from their
experience and how they're
going to do better with
the next big rush.
Of course, that will be
coming up fairly soon with
Fourth of July holiday
weekend and week.
That is really kind of our
next big benchmark.
We certainly see tourism
through the whole course of
the summer. Memorial Day
really kicks it off.
I mean, I would even say that
the opening fishing weekend
really kicks off tourism
in the Northwoods.
But we're wanting to make
sure that we have the steps
in place and the guidance
to give to our businesses.
But it's all of us working
together.
You know, we as chambers of
commerce and as leaders
of our communities,
we don't always have all of
the answers right now either.
We're all kind of you know,
we're all in this together.
Right. We've heard that enough.
And it's very true.
So we're looking to learn
from one another and make
those best practices.
- All right. Well, we really
appreciate your time on this,
and we hope that you have
a successful and safe summer.
Krystal Westfahl.
Thanks very much.
- Thank you so much.