‘Staycations’ boost Indiana Dunes business

The Indiana Dunes State Park is crediting a wave of “staycations” and improvements to the park for a record number of visitors in 2009.

A total of 1.1 million people visited the park last year, marking a 64-percent increase over 2005. That, in turn, boosted revenue by more than $1 million.

“It’s very amazing,” said Lorelei Weimer of the Porter County Convention Recreation & Visitor Commission. “Our weather here was cold last year. To break records told you the national trend was people still wanted to travel, but maybe they wouldn’t travel as far as they’d go before or looked for attractions that had a lower ticket price ... People want that beach experience, that dunes experience. They want to go away from home, but it won’t cost them an arm and a leg.”

Department of Natural Resources property manager Brandt Baughman said the park still got about 60 percent of its revenue from out-of-state visitors.

“We’re still functioning as a destination for many people,” he said.

Baughman attributed the increased interest to improvements at the site, including a renovated campground and a new boardwalk. The nature center’s interpretive displays also are going to be replaced for the first time in about 20 years, at a cost of $300,000.

Weimer said that once people visit the Dunes, they typically return six times. The bureau uses the Indiana Dunes as a “hook” in its marketing campaigns to attract tourists to Porter County in the hope that visitors will visit parts south of the Dunes as well.