Hospitality & Tourism

During a recent visit and tour of Racine, Wisconsin, and vicinity, I was reminded of the difficult challenges that face older manufacturing-oriented cities. It would be tough to find a place as steeped in manufacturing as the Racine area. As recently as 1969, over 40 percent of the Racine metropolitan area's jobs were to found in the sector — double the national level. Since then, the Racine area's experience has been similar to that of so many manufacturing-oriented places. Due primarily to job losses in the sector, manufacturing now represents only 20 percent of the Racine area work force, and this is still more than double today's national average!

Rob Strzelczyk, the owner of Mequon-based First Priority Printing, started woodworking 10 years ago after he and his wife, Cindy, couldn’t decide on a dresser for their first born son, Tyler.

TripAdvisor.com ranked the Pfister Hotel in Milwaukee No. 13 on its 2012 list of Top 25 Luxury Hotels in the United States.

The second annual Hospital Food Fight will not only determine the hospital with the best food in Wisconsin, the iron chef-type competition will also benefit Stillwaters Cancer Support Services.

Granite Peak Ski Area closed Sunday, three weeks earlier than planned, but the destination and business owners who depend on it for some of their sales said the winter season still was a modest success. Granite Peak was supposed to be open through Easter weekend, but temperatures in the 70s have melted much of the man-made snow that, along with natural snow, brought skiers and snowboarders to the mountain starting Thanksgiving weekend. One snowboarding event was canceled because of the early closure, and Granite Peak will also miss out on its last bump in traffic from students and their families during spring break. The Wausau region had received 38 inches of snow as of Monday. That's more than a foot less than the 52-inch average by mid-March and far below the 64 inches that had fallen by this time last year.

Some businesses across central Wisconsin are taking advantage of the unseasonable weather by opening earlier than normal, moves that could bring in extra business this year. Wisconsin has experienced a rash of record-setting warm days. The region is also in the midst of a dry stretch, with only about half an inch of rain falling in March. In response, golf courses have let people tee off, restaurants have opened their patios and landscaping services have begun early season prep work.

Two downtown Milwaukee hotels recently made a couple of best-of lists on TripAdvisor.com.

Milwaukee is not considered a major tourism destination for many Americans. But VISIT Milwaukee and a few local tour guides are working hard to improve the image of the city as a visitor's destination, and they have started working with local companies to custom design tours of the city for their clients, business partners and potential employees from out of town.

Wisconsin Native and comedic filmmaker David Zucker was recently hired to produce a television commercial for Travel Wisconsin.