ESCANABA — While the COVID-19 pandemic has negatively affected the Upper Peninsula’s economy, local businesses may be assisted by a rise in tourism over the next few months.

“All indications are now we’re on an up trend for people coming this summer,” Tom Nemachek, executive director of the Upper Peninsula Travel and Recreation Association (UPTRA), said.

Nemacheck said UPTRA has been keeping an eye on consumer confidence about travel over the past two months.

“The consumer confidence was very, very low,” he said regarding statistics from mid-March to April.

Because of this, UPTRA saw travel plans being canceled across the board for May and June.

“We started to see people moving their timeframe into July, August, September,” Nemacheck said.

Currently, these months are still expected to be strong for local tourism. Additionally, the number of people visiting the region has already begun ramping up.

“It’s very, very noticeable,” Nemacheck said.

Nemacheck cited the findings of an ongoing study focusing on people’s travel plans. The study is updated weekly.

“Back just a couple weeks ago, for every person that was saying they were going to travel, there was six people saying they weren’t,” Nemacheck said.

Recently, the ratio has shifted. Now, for every person saying they planned to travel, three people said they did not have travel plans.

“That’s obviously a huge trend change that’s very, very good for us,” Nemacheck said.

The U.P. also stands to benefit from the nature of people’s travel plans this summer. Nemacheck said most people have low confidence in air and cruise travel at this time.

“They don’t want to do either one of those,” he said.

People have not shown much interest in taking lengthy road trips over the coming months, either.

“They’re really interested in everything four to five hours from home,” Nemacheck said, noting 80 to 90 percent of U.P. tourists traditionally come from these areas.

A wide variety of U.P. businesses stand to benefit from increased tourism to the area.

“Obviously, lodging is right up there … we know that restaurants in the U.P. are heavily dependent on tourism,” Nemacheck said.

He cited gas stations and gift shops as examples of businesses that could be supported by the trend, as well.

A spike in tourism, accompanied by the continued reopening of businesses, could also have a positive effect on employment locally.

“Having those people getting paychecks rolls across the whole economy of a community,” Nemacheck said.

However, these businesses could still feel the impact of early summer cancelations in the short term.

“Every week that we have much less traffic in June and getting into July can be the difference between making and losing money for the summer,” Nemacheck said.

Nemacheck encouraged U.P. residents who want to travel this summer to visit parts of the peninsula that are new to them.

“It’s a great opportunity for them to vacation in their own Upper Peninsula,” he said.

For more information, visit www.uptravel.com.