Protests boost Dane County to Number 2 for Tourism Spending!!! We beat the Dells.

There is one bright spot in Wisconsin’s eceonomy; tourism. That’s only temporary of course until the Republicans pass new mining legislation.

jsonline: Visitors to Wisconsin spent near­ly $10 billion in 2011, an 8% increase from the previous year, according to a study released Friday by the state Department of Tourism. The spending, by both business and leisure travelers, directly sup­ports more than 128,000 jobs. Tourism is a core strength of the state's economy.

While Scott Walker blames protesters for killing jobs during the months the state actually saw job growth, I’ll bet he won’t give credit to those same protesters for boosting tourism spending:

WSJ: In Dane County, tourism spending rose 9.3 percent to $894 million, putting it behind only Milwaukee County ($1.5 billion) as the state's top tourism county. Ironically, part of Dane County's increase was the result of thousands of protesters converging on the State Capitol in 2011 to protest Walker's plan to restrict collective bargaining. 

Thanks to all the civil unrest, we beat out the wonderland of water parks in America, Sauk County.

Sauk County, home to many of the Wisconsin Dells area tourist attractions, ranked third in spending at $809 million, an increase of 7.3 percent.

And let’s give credit to Walker for using the conservative activist Waukesha courts for boosting tourism spending there:

Waukesha County ($617 million, an increase of 8.2 percent) was fourth.