October Travel Industry NewsAs Featured in the October 2009 Travel Industry NewsletterLooking for travel information?Visit our official State of Michigan travel Web site at michigan.org, contact one of our travel counselors at 888-78-GREAT, or visit any one of Michigan's 14 Welcome Centers. Below, you'll find the latest tourism industry news, initiatives and awards, as well as the most up-to-date Travel Michigan program updates. Travel Michigan, a division of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, is the State of Michigan's official agency for the promotion of tourism. News from Travel Michigan's Director, George ZimmermannWell, another month has come and gone, and we still do not have a final budget for 2010, the fiscal year which started October 1st. Budget deliberations continue at the Capitol, and we are hopeful for a final resolution soon. Obviously our planning for 2010 is on hold until we know our funding level. Again my thanks to everyone in the tourism industry who has voiced support for the continuation of the national Pure Michigan advertising campaign. While we all know that lawmakers are struggling with a very difficult budget situation, I remain cautiously optimistic that we will be funded at or near the $30 million level again in 2010, given the results the Pure Michigan campaign has produced in recent years. Earlier this month, we hosted two dozen travel writers from around the country on a familiarization (“fam”) tour of the Eastern Upper Peninsula. I was fortunate to be able to be part of this media tour, and I try to do fams like this when my schedule permits. For me, there are three primary benefits to being personally involved in fams such as this. First, it gives me a chance to get to know the travel writers and to help host their tour of Michigan. Second, it also allows me to spend time with Michigan tourism industry members who are working with us on the fam. And finally, by participating in these fams, it gives me (and Dave Lorenz and Kirsten Borgstrom) a new set of first-hand Pure Michigan experiences we can relate in future media interviews, press releases, etc. The better we know the Michigan tourism product, the better job we can do marketing that product. I was honored recently to be chosen by my peers around the country to serve as chair of the National Council of State Tourism Directors (NCSTD). NCSTD is a council of the U.S. Travel Association, on whose board I will now join as well. This is an important time for American tourism promotion at the national level, with the pending likely passage of the Tourism Promotion Act (TPA). The TPA would fund America’s first-ever significant overseas promotion of the U.S. as a destination. If approved, the TPA would provide approximately $200 million per year to market the U.S. tourism product to the world. For more information, contact George Zimmermann at (517) 335-1879. Pure Michigan Social Media Platform is Live!Travel Michigan has entered the viral arena. The Pure Michigan Social Media platform is live and we invite you to follow us, become a fan, or post a comment on our blog. You'll find us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr and the Pure Michigan Connect blog. With our goal to build loyalty and relationships with consumers, we are always looking to increase the value of our Pure Michigan message, news and Web content with potential visitors. If you'd like to help us by providing content, please feel free to add the following persons to your press release or frequent contact lists: For Twitter, contact Maria Wygnal, at (517) 373-8431; for Facebook, contact Lindsay Stough, at (734) 302-3300 x218. The social media stratosphere is continually evolving in its capability and purpose, so we'll continue to find what works, build off our foundation, measure our progress and keep you updated as we refine and expand. For more information, contact Melinda Remer at (517) 373-1531 michigan.org Web Site Updates for September 2009
The Pure Michigan newsletters considerably impacted web traffic during September. Six of the eight highest days of traffic coincided with a send of one of the newsletters.
Users of michigan.org clicked to Michigan tourism business web sites 511,284 times in September 2009, up 25% over September 2008. YTD clicks of 5.4 million were up 5% over 2008.
As with seasonal web traffic, clicks steadily decreased during September. The September daily average was 17,043 clicks. The highest daily level was 25,781 on Tuesday, September 1. The lowest was 12,810 on Saturday, September 26.
Source: michigan.org Click report. With a September market share of 10.46%, michigan.org held the top position of the top state tourism Web sites in the country for a fifth month in a row. Last September, michigan.org also held the no. one spot with a 7.78% market share. As a percentage of total web traffic during September, the market share percentage for michigan.org fell 32% from August; the average of the other 50 state tourism sites decreased 15%.
Source: Hitwise For more information, contact Gary Platte at (517) 335-1877. Hotel Occupancy in Michigan for August 2009
In Michigan, hotel occupancy declined 11.1% in August 2009, as compared to the same month in 2008. While this might seem like a large contraction, fifteen states registered larger rates of decline in August, with Oklahoma again registering the largest decline—19.3%. Michigan’s hotel occupancy rate for the month of August registered 59.7%, nearly in line with the nationwide hotel occupancy rate of 60.7%. Eighteen states registered lower occupancy rates than Michigan this month, including in alphabetical order: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas. With a year-to-date hotel occupancy rate of 48.7% for the first eight months of 2009, Michigan registered in last place, closely followed by Wisconsin (49.2%). In contrast, the top three states in terms of year-to-date hotel occupancy rates were North Dakota (67.8%), Hawaii (67.2%) and New York (65.1%). Occupancy year-to-date in the U.S. stood at 56.6%, down from 63.1% one year earlier. Detroit’s hotel occupancy rate for the month of August 2009 registered 53.8%, down from 65.5% a year earlier, for a month-to-same-month decline of 17.9%. In this category, Detroit ranked higher than seven of the 25 largest U.S. Markets, including: Phoenix, AZ (43.6%); New Orleans, LA (47.5%); Tampa-St. Petersburg, FL (48.2%); Dallas, TX (50.9%); Houston, TX (51.7%); Atlanta, GA (52.7%); and Nashville, TN (53.0%). Detroit’s year-to-date hotel occupancy (48.2%) registered as the lowest of the 25 largest U.S. Markets—17.4% lower than the 58.3% registered at the end of the first eight months of 2008. Dallas, TX registered as the second lowest of those markets with a year-to-date hotel occupancy rate of 52.8%. As is typical, the overall U.S. year-to-date hotel occupancy rate (56.6%) was lower than the year-to-date occupancy of the 25 largest U.S. Markets taken together (61.3%), for the first eight months of 2009. August Lodging Occupancy in Michigan, Detroit, and the United States
Source: Smith Travel Research is based in Hendersonville, TN. They have collected monthly and daily operating data and reported on the state of the lodging industry for over 20 years. Currently more than 23,000 hotels in the U.S. participate in its monthly survey. For more information, contact Lori Langone at (517) 241-6371. PR StarAfter 14 years with the Bay City Convention & Visitors Bureau Executive Director Shirley Roberts retired on September 1st. Shirley was always quick to respond to media inquiries with solid information and creative story ideas. She not only represented and promoted the area's attractions, events, and hospitality industry's interests, she was actively involved in several initiatives to improve and raise the area's tourism profile, including the inaugural BayFest, presenting the region to Hollywood as a film location, and opening a new visitor welcome center in the renovated 1904 Pere Marquette Train Depot. Even after retirement Shirley will continue her involvement with two special projects: the 2010 Tall Ship Celebration in Bay City and development of a planned riverfront marine heritage center. Looks like her star will continue to shine. For more information, contact Kirsten Borgstrom at (517) 335-1871. Attend the Michigan Port Cities Collaborative SummitJoin the Michigan Port Collaborative and port community leaders on October 28-29 at the Radisson Hotel in Lansing to protect and promote our Great Lakes. Talk to the experts and help to create a Port City Designation Process, a governance structure to sustain the Collaborative, identify incentives for Great Lakes Port Excursions and initiate a state and federal legislative caucus to advance the policy and funding goals of the Collaborative. The Collaborative is working to broaden its membership to include public and private sector representatives of Michigan port communities. To enrich the Summit results, each port community is encouraged to send a delegation with diverse perspectives and ideas, including elected officials, tourism, recreation, convention and visitor bureau leaders, economic development specialists, cargo shipping, ferry, marina and harbor operators, museum, lighthouse and Great Lakes underwater sanctuary and preserve leaders. For more information about the summit, click here. For registration details, click here. New Highway Pure Michigan Welcome SignsHave you started to notice the new Pure Michigan welcome signs that are now springing up along major highways leading into Michigan? The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) has worked with Travel Michigan to promote the Pure Michigan brand by placing it in front of visitors as they enter our state. More of these signs will continue to pop up along major highways and other entry points like airports. For more information, contact Ron Marabate at (517) 241-7200. Winter Packages NeededWinter is fast approaching. The michigan.org Web site is switching to its winter season look on November 2nd and we need your winter packages in our database. We are particularly interested in packages, which include skiing, snowboarding, snowmobiling, snowshoeing and dog sledding. To submit discounts, deals and packages, complete the Deals/Packages Survey. Also, remember you can directly access our michigan.org database any time to update your business/organization info. First, you need a “passcode,” which our staff (listed below) can supply. To learn the simple registration steps, go to our brief online overview. For more information regarding your property and our database listing of events or deals and discounts/packages, contact Marilyn Schneider at (517) 241-2605 or Bonnie Fink at (517) 335-6909. Submit video clip URLs to Carol Royse, or call her at (517) 373-3848. October is Michigan Farm Market & Agricultural Tourism MonthAgriculture and tourism are the state's second and third leading industries. Together they support economic stability and development, strengthen Michigan's family farms, improve the quality of life for our citizens in both rural and urban areas, and preserve the state's rich and diverse farmland and agricultural heritage. In celebration of October as Michigan Farm Market & Agricultural Tourism Month, Michigan Department of Agriculture Director Don Koivisto recently toured three agricultural tourism operations in Midland and Saginaw counties. “Michigan's bounty and beauty is never more apparent as it is during autumn and the peak of fall harvest," said Koivisto. “You can experience Michigan's autumn magnificence first-hand by visiting a farm market, cider mill, corn maze, winery, or pumpkin patch near you.” Michigan's food and agriculture industry contributes more than $71.3 billion annually to the state's economy and employs about one million residents. Michigan produces over 200 commodities on a commercial basis, making the state second only to California in agricultural diversity. For more information, contact the Michigan Farm Market and Agri-tourism Association at (517) 484-3912. MDOT Invites Comments on the Environmental Assessment for the
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