Manitowoc Mayor Justin Nickels
Manitowoc’s Room Tax Commission gathers at 5:30 this afternoon in Council Chambers at City Hall to determine how to proceed in finding a new tourism services provider for the city in 2022 and beyond.
Manitowoc and Two Rivers were under contract with the Manitowoc Visitor and Convention Bureau-who provided both municipalities with those services which expires at the end of this year. Mayor Justin Nickels says after months of negotiations, the Commission recently passed a motion to end their agreement with the MAVCB.
“In that same motion, they asked if Two Rivers would still be interested in having conversations with the city of Manitowoc on how we can provide tourism services to both communities which they declined so tonight the Commission will be meeting to discuss the best options moving forward.”
Nickels says the vote came down the way it did in part of Manitowoc’s desire to keep up with the Joneses.
“Tourism isn’t what it was in 1993. COVID changed it even more. We have to think outside the box. The city of Manitowoc had a lot of ideas on where to put resources better and unfortunately, we got to the point where we did. The meeting tonight will hopefully address some other areas of the city of Manitowoc’s side.”
The Mayor emphasized that the city won’t be without a tourism services provider come 2022 as it’s the second leading industry in Manitowoc but adds “I along with others on the Commission are very stringent on who that next provider will be.”
