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Middleton tourism director presents stronger-than-expected 2024 revenues and lays out 2025 priorities
Summary
The Middleton Tourism Commission received its 2024 finance and annual report, which showed room-tax receipts above budget and a $479,766 operating surplus; the director outlined marketing performance, target markets and projects for 2025 including a visitor-center video and a strategic plan.
The Middleton Tourism Commission on Feb. 18 reviewed its 2024 finance and annual report, with the director reporting actual room-tax receipts of $1,588,822 versus a budgeted $1,425,496 and overall tourism revenue of $1,593,739 for the year.
The director said the higher-than-expected room-tax receipts reflected reimbursements and other items that are counted as revenue. "I couldn't be happier with that," she said when presenting the year-end figures. She also noted certain items—roof-repair insurance reimbursements—were recorded as revenue, which affected totals.
The report showed a revenue-over-expenses surplus of $479,766 that the director said will be transferred to the tourism fund balance pending final accounting. The director warned some budget lines were underspent because staff vacancies and postponed projects left grant and advertising dollars unallocated: "We didn't turn down a single grant request last year," she said, while also noting only one sports grant of $10,000 was awarded.
Marketing performance was a central focus. The director summarized paid-social and streaming campaigns, reporting Facebook impressions of more than 6.6 million and about 198,441 clicks (a roughly 9% increase from 2023) and robust connected-TV and YouTube completion numbers. She said the commission targets Milwaukee, Cedar Rapids and Northern Illinois/Chicagoland as primary drive markets and that leisure and group/sports travel have carried recent growth.
On visitor origins, the director said Placer AI tracking (excluding Dane County residents) showed Milwaukee as the largest market (22.3%) and Chicago at 11.2%. The commission intends to continue investing in meeting-planner outreach and bus-tour sales while watching ROI on higher-cost leisure markets.
The director outlined 2025 priorities including completing the visitor-center video, refreshing wayfinding and walking-brochure materials with the historical society, completing a three-year strategic plan and participating in an employee compensation study. Several projects were postponed in 2024 to save money; the director said staff will re-evaluate grant criteria and the mix of sponsorship versus grant funding.
The commission received the report and did not take a formal vote to approve it (the director characterized it as "just a report") but members were invited to follow up with questions or requests for additional line-item detail.
Next steps: staff will finalize accounting for outstanding 2024 charges before formally closing the year and bring any recommended changes to grant criteria or visitor-center deliverables back to the commission for review.
