THANK YOU!

The Jefferson County Area Tourism Council (JCATC) had a big year in 2022. We launched two countywide endeavors: The Wedding Resource Guide and Barn Quilt Tour, and our website, enjoyjeffersoncounty.com, reached nearly 200,000 page views in 2022. This is the most page views for the JCATC website in the history of our group!

Some interesting web stats for the year include: doubling summer traffic over 2021, having a 24% open rate for our monthly newsletter, and monthly newsletter subscriptions continuing to climb to 6,600, due to our widely successful monthly online contests for Jefferson County gift cards.

Plus, the group’s Facebook page reach is 109K, with more than 3.7K followers for a nearly 240% jump. That’s phenomenal! The increase in web views is due in part to the group’s growth over the past two years, including the addition of such countywide promotions mentioned earlier.

While the last two years have been challenging for the tourism and hospitality sector, the Jefferson County Area Tourism Council proactively sought ways to keep our communities’ tourism members and organizations relevant. Our team was committed to finding ways visitors could still participate in activities. We proactively focused on what was possible, verses what wasn’t. This included highlighting our wonderful outdoor recreation activities and the safe business practices of local organizations.

Because of these efforts, along with developing countywide promotions, and sharing more engaging content, photos, and contests on our website, Jefferson County Tourism was able to position itself as a go-to community resource for things to do in Jefferson County.

To continue JCATC’s growth and success, we will be celebrating our 25th anniversary with our commemorative official guide. The official guide showcases all the great things to do and see in Jefferson County that make it a sought-after destination. This year the official guide will continue featuring photos from actual Instagram users enjoying county events, sharing such countywide tours as the wine/distillery tour and barn quilt tour, and offer a history of the group from the last 25 years. The 25th anniversary guide will be available on the group’s website and distributed throughout Wisconsin along with reaching travelers coming into our bordering areas in Minnesota, Michigan, Iowa, and Illinois. The official guide will be available March 2023. Those interested in advertising should reach out to our marketing consultant, Jen Erdman.

And finally, I wanted to take this time to thank everyone at JCATC for their help and support. The past two and a half years as president of JCATC have been a period of great growth for not only our organization, but also for myself. I have learned a great deal, made wonderful contacts and friends, and am proud of our accomplishments as a team. That said, it is bittersweet for me to share that I am leaving both my position as president of JCATC and director of tourism and communications for the Village of Johnson Creek. My last five years in that role also provided great learning experiences and I will miss the wonderful people of both Johnson Creek & Jefferson County. In my new role, I will be tackling global projects and am excited for the next steps on my journey. The new president of JCATC is Holly Tierney from Fort Atkinson. She will do an amazing job and I look forward to seeing all the new projects and initiatives that are on the horizon and will continue being a cheerleader for Jefferson County Tourism.

May 2023 be a year of gratitude, growth, and adventure!