In Canal Park, shops, restaurants, and hotels host thousands of tourists each year. They come for the lake. While they are here they buy the work of local artists to remind them of their trip. I hear people talk about tourists but people come here all year. Even so, they often speak prosaically about tourism.
Some people get upset about the noise and the density of folks but it comes with the territory.
Any viable and sustainable industry is worth the associated investment in infrastructure. Kinnan Stauber, chair of the Park Point Community Club's environmental committee, works to mitigate the impact of tourism on the environment. With money from a Coastal Zone Management grant and the Rotary Club of Duluth we are working on minimizing beach and dune erosion. Citizens have created board walks and are improving signs that inform and direct pedestrians. Each spring the committee plants trees and grasses to stabilize the dunes.