Tourism industry hiring all across state
About the only thing holding back Wisconsin’s $20 billion a year tourism industry is a familiar refrain facing state businesses: finding enough qualified workers.
That means employers are taking an approach not always associated with the hospitality field.
“We’re not just going to have competitive wages, we’re going to create a culture of inclusiveness and support and our people, even the line staff, are going to share the rewards,” said Dennis Doucette, who is aiming to hire 150 people at the newly renovated Hotel Retlaw in Fond du Lac.
Doucette, principal partner of Legendary Hotels, is confident those jobs will be filled by the time the full-service luxury hotel opens this fall. Growth in the industry is fueling the demand for more hotel rooms.
“Fond du Lac has grown beyond what the hotels themselves can accommodate,” he said. “Look to book a room for EAA, for instance, over the summer, the hotels in Fond du Lac are all sold out.”
Tourism supported 193,454 jobs in 2016, up about
Times, with 11 awards, and the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, with seven each, earned more honors than the four received by the Journal Sentinel. The New York Times won the award for General Excellence among large newspapers.
SABEW’s General Excellence judges singled out an ongoing Journal Sentinel investigation by Pulitzer Prize-winner Raquel Rutledge that has found more than 150 travelers have become sick, been assaulted and in some cases died after drinking small and moderate amounts of alcohol at all-inclusive Mexican resorts.
“All of the pieces in the entry were strong, and presentation took advantage of smart multimedia as well as print,” the judges said. “The investigation about rapes in Mexico was particularly compelling. The coverage served Milwaukee’s audience well with national-level reporting on pertinent local issues, such as the risks of oil transport both through aging pipelines and potential new ones.”
In all, there were 121 winners and honorable mentions from 986 entries across 68 categories, SABEW said.
In the Government category for medium-sized publications, the Journal Sentinel took first for its series of articles titled “Burned,” written by Rutledge, Rick Barrett and John Diedrich. The investigation found a group of industrial drum reconditioning plants, owned in part by Greif Inc., had disregarded safe practices for handling hazardous materials, harming workers and endangering those who live nearby, as well as the environment.
“This is genuine investigative journalism at its best,” the judges stated. “Next time someone tells you we don’t need local reporters, point to this series.”
Egan’s “Oil and Water” project received honorable mentions in the Energy/Natural Resources and Explanatory categories.
“While much has been written about the Dakota Access Pipeline, another and potentially bigger risk to the environment threatens the drinking water of 40 million people. A growing stream of oil is pumping through aging pipes along and under the Great Lakes,” the judges wrote.
SABEW is the world’s largest and oldest organization of business and financial journalists. It began the Best in Business competition in 1995 to set standards and recognize excellence in the industry.
The awards will be presented April 27 at the Capital Hilton hotel in Washington, D.C., during SABEW’s 55th annual conference.