(Arnolds Park)– Memorial Day weekend marks the traditional kick off to the summer vacation season in the Iowa Great Lakes. Rebecca Peters of Okoboji Tourism says based on what her office has been seeing, it should be another banner year…
”All indicators look that we should have a strong season with our visitors this year. Hotels say that their advanced bookings are looking good and we still definitely have room for those people who are looking for a last minute trip and that’s a really good position for us to be in because you never want people to want to come here and feel like they can’t find a room to stay in, so we’re in a great spot for the season.”
Peters says the demographics of potential visitors and where they’re coming from are also similar to past years…
”We have a great drive distance so we’ve got a lot of visitors who are coming from Des Moines, Omaha, Sioux Falls, Sioux City, the Minneapolis market. We’ve tried to make more of a push in the Minneapolis market as well and southern Minnesota to try to attract people down this way. We’re seeing a slight increase in that. The goal is really just to make sure that those visitors who have always enjoyed this community can continue coming back but also we want to introduce a few new people every year.”
Peters says the continued growth in venues offering live music in the Iowa Great Lakes is also helping out with that.
