Tourism in Door County is down only slightly from last year —- a fact that was celebrated at the Door County Visitor Bureau annual meeting Wednesday night at the Horseshoe Bay Golf Club in Egg Harbor.

Room-tax collections comparing communities that were in the Door County Tourism Zone last year to those same communities this year were down about 2.25 percent, said Door County Visitor Bureau CEO/President Jack Moneypenny.

Declines as high as 14 percent in the state's other tourism strongholds dwarf Door County's decline, Moneypenny said.

"For us to be there (at 2.25 percent) in this economy is really great," Moneypenny said.

Not factored into the 2008 and 2009 comparison are revenues from the Door County municipalities that joined the Tourism Zone Commission this year.

"Year-to-date tax collections are up this year," Moneypenny said, "Because new communities are contributing."

Total collections are up 10.3 percent over last year, after adding the revenue brought in by the new communities in the tourism zone.

Other indicators that tourism is alive and well in Door County, Moneypenny said, is the amount of traffic to the Door County Welcome Center.

"Welcome center traffic continues to eclipse last year," Moneypenny said. "A lot of the people who are stopping in are new to the county."

Year-to-date visits to the Door County Welcome Center are up 29 percent, Moneypenny said.

The number of Visitor Guide requests and fulfillments is also up, Moneypenny said, along with an increase in requests for the niche brochures the Door County Visitor Bureau offers pertaining to specific interests such as wineries.

In the future, the Door County Visitor Bureau will continue to implement proven initiatives, such as hosting press tours — five are scheduled for next year; as well as exploring some new territory, such as establishing a presence on social-networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.

About 125 people attended the annual meeting. Bill Brown of Glidden Lodge Beach Resort was named chairman of the Door County Visitor Bureau board of directors replacing outgoing chairman David Eliot of the Peninsula Pulse.