The tourism industry is built on partnerships, according to David Uran and Lorelei Weimer.
“We’re all about partnerships and helping each other out,” said Weimer, executive director of Indiana Dunes Tourism, at a Valpo Chamber luncheon Thursday.
“Our job is to get visitors excited to come to our areas,” she said.
Uran is president and CEO of South Shore Convention and Visitors Authority, the Lake County counterpart.
“It’s really good to see Lake County and Porter County working together,” Uran said. “Visitors don’t see county lines. They don’t see city or town lines.”
Uran, a four-term Crown Point mayor, knows the amateur sports industry well. “Amateur sports was our economic engine” in Crown Point, he said. “That was our big box. That was our Target and Home Depot.”
It’s also big business for all of Northwest Indiana. An NCAA Division 2 volleyball tournament this weekend is bringing teams and families to the region, he noted. Between games, they’ll visit local restaurants and tourist attractions, he said.
The National Softball Association tournament uses a lot of venues. “We play from Lake County all the way to Porter County,” Uran said.
“Putting visitors in front of your business is what we do,” he said.
Tourism spending accounts for $1.1 billion per year in Lake County, Uran said.
Without tourist dollars, the over 190,000 households in Lake County would pay an additional $633 per year to maintain the existing level of state and local government services, he said.
Tourism also improves the quality of life here, with tourists supporting venues, restaurants and other amenities the locals enjoy, Weimer said.
Visitor spending in Porter County is $679 million annually, she said.
“Eighty-seven percent of our market share is our leisure travelers,” Weimer said.
Lake County is looking at building a convention center, but Uran wants it to be a facility that could also be used for sporting events.
A 2018 feasibility study by the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority is outdated and needs to be redone, he said, adding 109th Avenue in Crown Point is just about built out, and Majestic Star in Gary is no longer, having been replaced by the land-based Hard Rock Casino. The new study will need to identify other locations that have 40 undeveloped acres available, Uran said.
In Porter County, the Indiana Dunes is the biggest draw. The majority of the Dunes is in Porter County. Just 20% of the Dunes visitors are from Northwest Indiana, Weimer said.
Put Indiana Dunes National Park and Indiana Dunes State Park together, and the Dunes rank fourth out of the 63 national parks for the number of visitors last year. That rank fluctuates. In 2021, the Dunes ranked second, edging out Grand Canyon National Park.
Weimer’s agency promotes the Dunes, but it is also focused on attracting Dunes tourists to other destinations.
That strategy is similar to what the Northern Indiana Tourism Development Council is doing. The counties along the Indiana Toll Road formed the partnership in 1991 to attract toll road drivers to explore attractions in those counties.
“What can we do together that we can’t do on our own?” Weimer asked.
“You’ve got this diverse product line,” with everything from the Lake Michigan shoreline in three of the counties to casinos to Amish Country to the University of Notre Dame and more.
A branding study came up with Indiana’s Cool North to promote the state’s northern tier. “This brand has tested extremely well,” Weimer said.
The Indiana Toll Road sees 42 million cars per year, Weimer said, and 52% of travelers don’t make hotel reservations before they depart. Displays along the toll road let travelers know about local hotels they could stay in as well as tourist destinations to entice them to explore northern Indiana’s attractions instead of just zipping through to Illinois or Ohio.
“We need you to get off that road and into these communities,” Weimer said.
The partnership has been good for local agencies. Indiana Dunes Tourism consistently finds that NITDC is among the top five referrers to the Porter County agency’s website.
Uran said tourists from the Indianapolis area have discovered Northwest Indiana. “They don’t have Lake Michigan in Indianapolis,” he explained, so they come for the beaches and more.
Doug Ross is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
