(Arnolds Park)– This tourism season in the Iowa Great Lakes appears to be one for the record books. Kiley Zankowski of Vacation Okoboji says the numbers are very impressive…
“So far this summer starting Memorial Day, we’ve seen 526,000 out of market visitors come to our area which is truly amazing. On average they’re staying about 4.4 days and that’s about a 12 percent increase from last year which we definitely expected because of the flooding that we had last year but still it’s really great for us to see that increase.”
Zankowski says the strong numbers this summer are also being reflected in vacancy rates for hotels and even more so, vacation rentals…
“You know having about 70 to 80 percent typical occupancy with the last few weeks and looking into the next few weeks closer to that 90 to 95 percent occupancy which is really great. We love the hotel motel tax that comes in from Air BNB rentals but that in a way is competition for our hotels. So we have seen about 580 rental properties this summer which is about 20 to 30 more properties than we had last summer stoking that increase. We’re seeing a stay there for about 3.4 days at those rentals and pretty much all summer they’ve been 90 percent or more occupied.”
Zankowski says the lodging tax revenue so far this summer reflects that…
“You know I was able to see the revenue in June alone, $3.6 million in revenue was collected at our Air BNB properties with $6.3 million year-to-date which is a record high for our area. Last year at this time we were at $5.9 million and it was a record at that point in time as well. So showing a really, really strong summer which is again, great for our community, great that we’re able to welcome more people to our area and show them what we have to offer.”
Over the 4th of July, Zankowski says some 92,000 visitors were in the Iowa Great Lakes, coming from all 50 states.
She adds the top markets continue to be Sioux City, Des Moines, Sioux Falls, Minneapolis and Omaha.
