You will find plenty of people piling onto the ferries to visit Washington Island this summer. According to Door County Tourism Zone data, it continues a positive trend for the island, which saw an improvement in its occupancy rate over last year in four of the first five months of this year. Ferry boat captain and Townliner Motel owner Joel Gunnlaugssson says the weather has cooperated with people hoping to explore the island outside of a few days. He admits that he might be seeing fewer visitors compared to last year but adds that there are a lot of factors at play as well.

The rest of the county is seeing lower occupancy rates than last year, but it is still far ahead of what was seen in 2018, 2019, and 2020. For example, the occupancy rate for lodging units in Door County in May 2022 was 39.43 percent, compared to 42 percent in 2021, 14.40 percent in 2020, 29.89 percent in 2019, and 31.48 percent in 2018.