FISH CREEK, Wis. — It wouldn’t have taken much for Door County tourism numbers to outstrip last year.

But it looks like the county may be on pace to beat figures from 2019.

That’s good news for business owners like Benjamin Kornowski of Alpaca to Apparel in Fish Creek.

“We were expecting a pretty good year and that’s what we got, a pretty good year,” he said. “It was busy starting in June all the way into October so far.”

County tourism officials say the same thing: it looks like it will be a good year for visitors.

That’s something Judy Korte knows first hand. She’s seen it at The Edgewater Cottages — a business her family has owned since 1945.

“We’re happy this year,” she said. “A lot of our return guests are back. Right now five of our seven cottages are filled with return guests, so that’s wonderful news. People came back to Door County and that makes us happy.”

After diminished numbers in 2020, a rebound is welcome news to Korte and others.

“There’s still the cost of operating your business, there’s taxes. Everything keeps coming as far as bills and maintenance and when you don’t have the income it’s hard,” she said about last year. “It’s been great for our business that we’ve had a good year.”

Nice fall weather has also helped keep business brisk, Kornowski said.

Though that creates a bit of a unique situation for his business.

“It’s a double edged sword. When it’s warm people don’t necessarily think about buying sweaters and stuff but there are a lot more people walking around,” he said. “You have to have the perfect balance of nice weather and bad weather to make people think about buying sweaters.”