Who's Visiting Wisconsin's Historic Sites?

According to the Travel Industry Association of America (TIA), travelers who love history and culture spend more and stay longer than average tourists. Clearly, restaurants, retail shops, attractions and other area businesses have a vested interest in promoting a nearby historic site since many historic visitors stay overnight and supplement their visit with shopping, dining and trips to area attractions.

In conjunction with the Wisconsin Historical Society (WHS), the Department of Tourism conducted an extensive study of over 3,000 visitors at eight Wisconsin historic sites during 2001. Here are highlights from the study:

• Who is Wisconsin's Historic Visitor?
• How do they vacation?
• How do they plan their trip?
• Marketing to the Historic Visitor

Who is Wisconsin's Historic Visitor?

• More than one-half (54%) of respondents indicated the purpose of the trip was to see the historic site.

• Eighty-five percent of the historic visitors come from the Midwest: Wisconsin (57%), Illinois (13%), Minnesota (7%), Iowa (6%), Michigan (2%) and Indiana (1%).

• Wisconsin's historic visitors were predominately educated and affluent Baby Boomers between the ages of 35-54 with an average age of 50.

• The top five leisure activities of Wisconsin's historic travelers included traveling, reading, camping, sightseeing and hiking. First-time visitors were more inclined to go golfing, fishing and biking. Repeat visitors liked to read, camp and bike.

How do they vacation?

• Sixty percent of historic visitors require overnight lodging accommodations. The majority stays in a hotel or motel, however, some historic visitors also stay in RV campgrounds, in the homes of friends or relatives, or camped in a tent.

• Historic visitors generally travel in parties of four people, their family or a combination of family and friends.

• The majority of visitor parties (66%) travel without children under the age of 18. For those groups that included children, kids were typically between the ages of 6 and 12 years old. Day-trippers were more apt to have children under the age of 18 in their groups (38%) than overnight visitors (31%).

• The average per person per day expenditure of a historic visitor was $42.

• Area businesses benefit from Wisconsin's historic travelers. In conjunction with their visit to the historic site, visitors planned to dine (53%), shop (41%), see other attractions in the area (33%) or visit other area museums (14%).

How do they plan their trip?

• Short-term planning is the norm for Wisconsin's historic site visitors. One-fifth planned their trip the same day of the trip; 13% planned it the day before their trip; and 21% planned it within a week.

• Trip planning is quite different for day and overnight visitors. 73% of the day visitors planned their trip within 7 days compared to 47% of the overnight visitors.

• Seventy percent of historic travelers were visiting the site for the first time. Of these first-time visitors, 23% "happened upon the site" as they were passing through the area.

• Overnight visitors were more likely to participate in area activities than day-trippers. Sixty-three percent planned on dining, 52% were going shopping, 46% were going to take in other area attractions, 21% planned on visiting other museums, and 7% were going to participate in other activities that included theater, community festivals, gambling, camping, etc.

• Although day visitors are only in the area for one day, almost 40% planned on dining in the area and 25% indicated they were going shopping.

• Visitors use a variety of sources to get site information, including word-of-mouth recommendations, brochures, tourist information centers, information from other historic sites and newspapers. Although word-of-mouth ranked high across all segments, first-timers and overnight visitors mentioned brochures and tourist information centers. The first-time visitor also used the Internet more frequently than the repeat visitor.

Marketing to the Historic Visitor

• Overall, visitors gave a high satisfaction rating to Wisconsin historic sites. Using a four-point scale, with four as the highest, respondents gave Wisconsin historic sites a satisfaction rating of 3.6.

• Restaurants, retail shops, attractions and other area businesses have a vested interest in promoting a nearby historic site because many historic visitors stay overnight and supplement their visit with shopping, dining, and taking in area attractions.

• On the other side, it is important that historic site employees are aware of all the tourism opportunities the area has to offer especially since a high percentage of the historic visitors are first-time visitors and rely on word-of-mouth recommendations.

• Area attractions, restaurants, and retail stores should consider placing brochures at the historic site to promote their offerings.

• Exceptional customer service goes a long way in promoting a destination and "spreading the word." Wisconsin's historic visitor frequently mentioned word-of-mouth recommendations for leisure information as well as site information.

• Knowing that the historic visitor likes to travel, read, camp, sightsee and hike in their leisure time presents an opportunity for a community to invite these visitors back with creative packaging and promotion.

For more information from the Department of Tourism's historic site research or Travel Industry Association of America's (TIA) report Profile of Travelers Who Participate in Historic & Cultural Activities, contact Sue Hamilton at 608/266-6792.