ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, Ind. — Visit South Bend Mishawaka came out with its 2025 annual report. It outlines greater hotel demand, successful events, local development and the success of regional attractions.
Jeff Jarnecke is the Executive Director for Visit South Bend Mishawaka. He says last year, attractions, hotels, and the airport were busier.
Jarnecke points to a major win in 2025— hotel performance.
“I think the biggest differentiator of all of that was that St Joseph County was up 14 percent year-over-year in terms of occupancy and demand. While in any given year that would be an incredible increase, when the rest of the state of Indiana was down about 1 percent, that just meant there was a lot of really good things, events, business, economic development and other happenings in St Joseph County that led us to lead the state in terms of that increase this year compared to last,” said Jarnecke.
Short-term rental bookings also rose by about 20 percent.
According to Visit South Bend Mishawaka, tourism generates an estimated $1.5 billion in economic impact for St. Joseph County in total. An estimated 5.7 million visitors come to the county, spending roughly $960 million.
A main driver of tourism is the University of Notre Dame.
“From seven home football games and a concert at Notre Dame Stadium to the economic development projects to new attractions in St. Joseph County, we were firing on all cylinders this past year,” said Jarnecke.
Jarnecke says he’s optimistic that 2026 will meet and hopefully exceed these numbers.
He says quality-of-place experiences play a role.
“So, the enhancements at the Zoo, the second story at Four Winds Field, the Dinosaur Museum that welcomed more than 91,000 people in its first year, the Mishawaka Field House that's approaching a million people through its doors. We'll see improvements at Leeper Park tennis and at Normain Heights Miracle League Field, improvements at George Wilson park, but those enhancements that are not only for residents and locals to enjoy, but also the same things that will bring in visitors from out of town, whether that's for business or pleasure, are just ever increasing and ever improving in St Joseph County,” said Jarnecke. “Certainly, our mainstay in the University of Notre Dame, that continues to be the primary economic and visitation driver within St. Joseph County is only on to even more things here in the coming year, with six football games and at least two concerts on campus.”
South Bend International Airport also broke records in 2025, setting an all-time passenger record.
Mike Daigle, South Bend International Airport CEO and Executive Director, says the previous passenger record was in 1997.
“So, 2025 is the most aviation or airline passengers we've ever had for South Bend International Airport. We had over 1.1 million passengers fly in and out on our airline partners. And so just a tremendous year,” said Daigle.
But 2025 was unique for more reasons than one.
“So, 2025, we also had something new that had never happened at South Bend before, is we had more than 50,000 people leave in one month, and we actually had it happen two months in a row. One of them, obviously, was football season, the other one was in the spring break time frame. So, we're anticipating that again, and we're preparing for that,” said Daigle.
Daigle says when people choose to travel out of SBN, it helps them continue to grow air service, add new destinations and bring larger airplanes.