MANISTIQUE, Mich. (WZMQ) – Businesses hit hard by the lack of snow over the winter are looking forward to warmer and more profitable temperatures. However, the season looked very different for locations throughout the Eastern Upper Peninsula.\
Goldthorpe Enterprises oversees a number of businesses throughout the U.P. Regional Manager Andrew Rasch is responsible for lodging operations in Delta, Schoolcraft, Luce, and Mackinac Counties.
“Tourism all across the board has been seriously impacted,” Rasch said. “Everything from hotels to restaurants to shops, they’ve all seen serious declines due to lack of traffic up here.”
Hotels in Newberry suffered an especially damaging drop in business.
“If you go down to the snowmobile show in Novi and ask all the snowmobilers down there the one place they want to go, they’re going to talk about Newberry and they’re going to talk about Munising,” said Rasch. “Those are the areas that are probably the biggest impacted by tourism for any winter activity.”
Many industries have been hopeful that the early warmup will translate to a boost in spring tourism. However, Rasch says that is not necessarily the case for places like Newberry and Manistique.
“To some extent, you’ll see an increase in probably roadwork that’s going to be done because the conditions are going to be right for it, but I don’t really see a whole lot of early traffic,” he said. “People don’t tend to get out and going until the schools are actually out.”
On the other hand, St. Ignace actually experienced an increase in lodgers.
“Considering we’re right next to the Mackinac Bridge in St. Ignace, it’s always a busy traffic area,” said Rasch. “Right now, we’re having a major highway infrastructure change. They’re doing all the offramps, so we’ve had contractors coming through. That’s really kept us going throughout the winter.”
As temperatures continue to climb into April, Rasch says he is optimistic about the summer ahead throughout the region.
“The U.P. is always very busy during the summer anyway because this is pretty much the place to be for any kind of outdoor activities,” he said. “We’re looking forward to a very busy season, and we’re hoping it’s going to be better than ever.”
