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East Troy presenter credits scavenger games and lights for winter tourism growth
Summary
A presenter at the Village of East Troy meeting outlined recent marketing events — including a citywide scavenger hunt and a month‑long winter light show — and said those programs corresponded with increased room tax revenues and higher retail sales during event dates.
Vanessa, a presenter at the Village of East Troy meeting, told trustees that a series of marketing events and interactive attractions have helped extend the village’s tourism season and drive local spending.
Vanessa said the village launched a citywide “scavenger games” in 2024 that ran on three dates and “fused cutting edge technology with hands on puzzles and mind bending challenges.” She said the most popular date was an October Spooktacular that produced window projections and installations and that one participating business saw sales “59% higher than the average” on that event day. “We are a place full of momentum,” Vanessa said.
The presenter also described the East Troy Lights event, which ran Dec. 2–31 and was estimated by Travel Wisconsin formulas to draw more than 15,000 day‑trip and overnight visitors and roughly $700,000 in spending across the month. Vanessa said the light show helped generate overnight stays during a historically slow season and that fourth‑quarter room tax revenue trended upward after the lights began in 2020. Vanessa said the village used a Travel Wisconsin grant to support promotions and ran advertising including billboards and a full‑page ad in Milwaukee Magazine.
Board members asked several operational questions after the presentation. One trustee asked whether Airbnbs in the village pay the local room tax; Vanessa said short‑term rentals are supposed to pay the tax but she was not certain how consistently they are being monitored and collected. Trustees also discussed continuing to coordinate promotions with attractions such as the railroad and restaurants.
Vanessa outlined plans for 2025 that include expanding the Halloween programming into a month of activities that would run alongside school homecoming and other fall events. She said the village will continue marketing day‑trip visits from nearby metro areas and is using social media, including Instagram and TikTok, to reach new audiences. When asked about detailed metrics, Vanessa offered to answer additional questions about the reports.
The presentation was delivered during the meeting’s agenda and prompted follow‑up questions but did not include a board vote or formal action.
