Paul Upchurch

When the Wisconsin Department of Tourism released the numbers from its annual study on the economic impact of tourism in our state last May, the news was good - especially for Milwaukee County.

Last year at this time, we were optimistic that the hospitality and tourism industry would awake from the recessionary doldrums of 2009 and begin to stage a comeback. We predicted that convention business for 2010 could grow by almost 50 percent over 2009. With the books closed on 2010, we're thrilled to report that the hospitality industry is indeed making a comeback, and convention business actually increased by 55 percent in 2010.