IRON MOUNTAIN, MI— Upper Peninsula businesses reliant on winter tourism are cutting costs and laying off employees to stay afloat.
Warm weather has decimated income for industries that depend on snow and cold.
Tom Nemacheck is Executive Director of the Upper Peninsula Travel and Recreation Association. He says only about 20 percent of what a tourist spends goes towards lodging and a lot of other businesses are suffering, as well.
“The lodging is losing out on their piece of the pie, but a far bigger piece of the pie is spent elsewhere, such as restaurants and such. So, it’s been pretty devastating for everybody.”
Nemacheck says he’s never encountered a season like it.
“It’s just been a devastating winter at this point. I’ve been director for almost 30 years. Nothing even close to this has ever happened.”
Dozens of businesses across the Upper Peninsula are asking the state for aid to help mitigate the region’s tourism crisis. Nemacheck is anticipating a loss of many millions of dollars when winter financial figures are calculated in April.