Wisconsin Dells Convention Hosting Stage II - Economic Indicator

The Village of Lake Delton has given the Kalahari Resort 10 million publicly collected dollars to build a convention center ( 212 thousand square feet) capable of serving large regional - national groups.  This is a public - private partnership forged to create a physical location designed to attract a huge new population of shared customers in to the Wisconsin Dells area.

The critical lack in the Wisconsin Dells area is labor.  The Wisconsin Dells area must import their labor from outside of the Country through the J1VISA Program.  In 2017 the published calculation of the number of individuals who came to live in Wisconsin Dells from outside of the Country through the J1VISA Program was more than 4500.  Today that number is much higher.

The business modals that operate in the Wisconsin Dells area need the J1VISA Program visitors to  staff their locations and serve the travelers.  The number of J1VISA Program visitors can be used to calculate the economic wellness of the Wisconsin Dells area.

When the number of work experience travelers coming from outside of the Country through the J1VISA Program to live in Wisconsin Dells is staying way above the 4500 calculation the local economy is doing well.  When the number of work experience travelers coming from outside of the Country through the J1VISA Program to live in Wisconsin Dells drops below the 4500 calculation the local economy is performing poorly.

This is correlated with utilization of the new housing being funded by the Village of Lake Delton for the J1VISA Program visiting population.  Simply knowing the number of available beds and how many are being occupied by the J1VISA Program visitors gives us a sense of the over all function of the local economy.

- Occupied J1VISA Beds means a well performing local economy

- Empty J1VISA Beds means a poor performing local economy

A poor performing local economy means significantly less contributions to the Premier Resort Tax fund.  The Wisconsin Dells area will need to attract a lot more individuals from outside of the Country through the J1VISA Program to staff the new convention center at the Kalahari Resort.  The Wisconsin Dells area has entered stage II of the convention hosting industry.