Tourism officials in the Iowa Great Lakes estimate over 720,000 people visited the area this summer, slightly behind last year’s tally. Kiley Zankowski is executive director of Vacation Okoboji, which is part of the Iowa Great Lakes Chamber of Commerce.
As expected, the 4th of July weekend was the busiest of the summer, with an estimated 90,000 visitors.
Zankowski says most visitors come from areas like Sioux Falls, Sioux City, Omaha, Des Moines, and Minneapolis, but an increasing number of visitors are coming from as far away as Chicago, Kansas City, and Wisconsin.
