Five months into his new job as president and chief executive officer of Visit Milwaukee, Paul Upchurch has set a goal to change the pubic perception of Milwaukee to better reflect the city’s tourism attractions.
According to Upchurch, Visit Milwaukee recently conducted a survey of 642 event planners from across the country. The results indicated that planners who have never hosted an event in Milwaukee compared the destination to Cincinnati, Columbus and Detroit. Planners who have either visited or hosted an event in Milwaukee compared the city to Boston, Washington, D.C., and Dallas.
“Their perception of the destination changes so dramatically once they’ve been here,” Upchurch said. “The No. 1 reason they pick a destination is the positive things others have said about the city. So, the more we can spread the word and the more people we can get talking about Milwaukee, the better our chances are at continuing to build our tourism economy.”
UpChurch has an extensive background in the hospitality and tourism industry, including five years working with Milwaukee-based Marcus Hotels and Resorts.
“I’m excited to be back in Milwaukee,” Upchurch said. “This is an important job, and having spent much of my career in this industry, and having worked with organizations like Visit Milwaukee all over the country, I have seen cities that have done it well and cities that could definitely do it better. I always thought that successful leadership could be really impactful for a city. I’m prepared to take what I’ve learned throughout my career and apply it to my work here to help grow our regional tourism economy.”
BizTimes Reporter Alysha Schertz recently interviewed Upchurch about his goals for growing the tourism economy in the Milwaukee region. The following are excerpts from that interview.
BizTimes: What were your initial thoughts about the city from an attraction and tourism standpoint?
Upchurch: “It’s got everything that any large world-class city would have to offer. When you look at the hotel packages and the convention center and Milwaukee has the fastest-growing airport in the country. We’ve got wonderful restaurants, the lakefront and a great tourism infrastructure with the Milwaukee Art Museum, the Public Museum and Potawatomi (Bingo Casino). Milwaukee has all the tools to work with that any first-class destination would have to work with. Milwaukee doesn’t have any obstacles to selling, and we also have a great value to sell. We’ve got all of this wonderful quality we can sell at a very wonderful price. That creates a real appealing package for both business convention and leisure travelers alike.”
BizTimes: Did you come in with a plan as far as what you wanted to see happen with the tourism industry here in Milwaukee?
Upchurch: “The plan was to grow that tourism economy, and it’s got lots of facets, as you know. It’s leisure travel, business travel and conventions. So, we really needed to begin to look at all those things and figure out a way to continue to keep that momentum going. We need to look at how we can tell our story better or if we are even telling the story in the appropriate places with the right frequency to really create that awareness. One thing I always knew from my time here, and it’s been reinforced the last few months, is that we suffer from a lack of awareness in a lot of markets that are important to us for tourism. So, how do we turn that lack of awareness into a positive image for the city and how do we bring more people to the city to begin to tell that story? That is really the major challenge, because we’ve got everything we need here to sell, getting people experienced with the destination, and turning them into loyal fans and letting them tell the story about our city.”
BizTimes: What can the tourism industry do for businesses in the community, and what role does it play when relocating businesses and employees?
Upchurch: “When you come from one of the 13 Fortune 500 companies in our area, things like second-safest city in the country and 23rd-most fun city, ahead of Las Vegas, Nev., really solidify that we’ve got great quality of life here. We’ve got tremendous arts, tremendous restaurants and year-round events. We’ve got so much to offer, that telling that story from a tourism perspective helps to reinforce that if you are a company doing business here. The first step to any recruitment process is a visit to the city. It certainly reinforces the idea that Milwaukee is a great place to not only visit but also to live and work. I’ve moved around a lot, and whenever I was asked to relocate to a new place, the perception of the place, or what people said when they visited there played a big role in whether or not I even paid a visit to the area. It’s critical that the positive image and awareness about Milwaukee be out there even more.”
BizTimes: On the flip side, businesses can also help promote the tourism industry here in the city. What are your plans to get businesses on board to promote our city as well?
Upchurch: “We’ve already got several examples of corporations that do walk the talk. Northwestern Mutual just finished their 130th annual meeting here, Harley-Davidson brings a lot of people to Milwaukee with their five-year anniversaries and their dealer meetings. Fortunately, there are a lot of companies that really do walk the talk by bringing their meetings and conventions here. We will continue to collaborate and work with those local companies who are very helpful in bringing their own meetings here, but also reach out to their associations and their business contacts to bring their meetings here as well. (Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce president) Tim Sheehy’s a great example of that. The American Association of Chamber Executives just held their meeting here, and that wouldn’t have happened without him picking up the phone and saying, ‘Hey, I’m proud of my city, and I’d really like us to host this meeting.’ We will continue to spread that message and even work with the Governor’s Meetings Mean Business for Wisconsin campaign to remind people of the economic impact of these meetings and how important it is for jobs in the community, payroll in the community and building the quality of life in your own community.”
BizTimes: What are your goals for the tourism industry in the Milwaukee region? What is your five-year plan?
Upchurch: “Continuing to change the image of Milwaukee and to tell that story is at the top of the list, especially within the markets where that is really important. In markets throughout the state and in Chicago, western Michigan and other Midwestern cities like Minneapolis, St. Louis and Indianapolis. On the convention front, we need to do the same thing. At the end of the day, our responsibility at Visit Milwaukee is to continue to grow the tourism economy and to continue to make sure that economy thrives and is healthy. In that regard, we get involved in issues on infrastructure, changes and development. Do we need additional infrastructure? Do we need to change our tourism package? That will also be something we will evaluate over the next five years. We have to have a business plan for tourism, because it’s a major industry. We have to make sure the tourism economy is healthy, thriving, growing and evolving to meet the needs of the traveling public. Our biggest challenge will be continuing to build that positive image of Milwaukee and how we take advantage of the tourism infrastructure we have here, how we draw people in and how we help them spread that message to others. We will continue to work with local businesses and individuals across the region to help people to understand how important tourism is to our economy and how important our role is in making sure it is healthy and thriving.”
