News from Travel Michigan's Director, George Zimmermann

The coming of May means summer is just around the corner, Michigan's largest tourism season. And as our beautiful state blooms out in its full green glory, it seems to me that we also are blooming as an industry. On the heels of a well-attended tourism conference, we find ourselves with much to celebrate: the roll-out of the industry-driven Michigan Tourism Strategic Plan; the success of having our new Pure Michigan branding in place and taking hold; launching increased out-of-state summer advertising funded by the second year of our two-year funding boost; and, the post-Labor Day school start now the law in Michigan!

Given the fiscal turmoil faced by the state, no one today can predict what will happen to our funding levels and promotional effort in 2008. But I can tell you that the industry unity demonstrated by all of the events listed above makes me optimistic that we, as an industry, are working better together now than in recent memory, and perhaps ever.

One of our goals for 2007 is the dissemination of the new Pure Michigan branding as widely as possible. State tourism brands which have survived the test of time have done so largely because they have been embraced by the private sector. The brand will only be as effective as it is widely adopted and used by the entire Michigan tourism industry. Click on the marketing link to the left of this column to get to the Pure Michigan logo and guidelines for your use of it. Any place you can include it - your web site, letterhead, advertising, press releases, etc. - will strengthen the power of the brand for all. And the stronger we build the Pure Michigan brand, the better we all will do at enticing new visitors to Michigan. We at Travel Michigan wish you a prosperous and happy summer season!

For more information, contact George Zimmermann at (517) 335-1879.

Travel Commission Meeting

The next Michigan Travel Commission meeting will be held on Friday, May 18 from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, 300 N. Washington Square, Lansing. You are encouraged to attend and give input, along with leadership of the "Big Eight" Issue Work Teams, as the Travel Commission prioritizes the recommendations of the Michigan Tourism Strategic Plan.

For more information, please contact Dave Lorenz at (517) 335-0007.

"PURE MICHIGAN" Logo

As a follow-up to the tourism conference, the Pure Michigan logo is now available on the michigan.org image gallery in a downloadable format. To date, we've received many requests for the rights to use Pure Michigan. We would like to continue encouraging all sectors of the travel industry to use this branding where appropriate in all Michigan tourism industry marketing and communications. The more widespread the use of the Pure Michigan brand, the more effective the brand will work for all of us.

For more information, contact Melinda Remer at (517) 373-1531.

Great News for Michigan Travel Ideas Advertisers

In tight economic times, it's good to know there are still some great bargains to take advantage of. And our 2008 Michigan Travel Ideas advertising opportunities offer just that-a great bargain. In an effort to keep this publication affordable, there will not be a rate increase for 2008. Plus, advertisers can still take advantage of a 5% early bird discount by reserving space by July 1.

In order to meet one of the earliest demands for information about our state, we are moving the release date for the 2008 publication to late December - a month earlier than previous years. This means that we will have copies of the new Michigan Travel Ideas in time for the 2008 North American Auto Show, one of the biggest gatherings of national and international media representatives in the world. So, get ready, sales representatives will be calling on properties soon. Ad sales for the 2008 publication will close on September 11.

This is a marketing opportunity that you can't afford to miss out on. Contact Jim Fry at (888) 303-3110, or Richard Konopaske at (269) 965-3134 to reserve your space now.

For more details, contact Robin Peebles at (517) 373-7462.

michigan.org Web Site Updates — A Travel Perspective  

March 2007 web visits that were served Travel content at michigan.org have increased by 29 percent over the same period last year. March 2007 web sessions totaled over 923,000 compared to over 716,500 for 2006. Year-to-date totals for 2007 have logged nearly 2.5 million web sessions. This compares to nearly 1.8 million web sessions through March 2006, an increase of 39 percent.

Total March 2007 click-throughs from michigan.org to Michigan travel industry web sites were 346,705, an increase of nearly 33 percent over 2006. Total click-throughs for 2007 number over 917,000; this is an increase of nearly 31 percent over 2006. Click-throughs are defined as the number of times michigan.org web visitors clicked on a link and were transferred to a private sector web site

According to the rankings of Hitwise, during March 2007, michigan.org placed second among the 50 state tourism web sites for market share of visits. With a market share of 6.09 percent, Michigan ranked just behind Illinois.

For more information, please contact Gary Platte at (517) 335-1877.

michigan.org—Your Promotion Portal

The Travel Michigan web site is brimming with information about Michigan's many tourist events and package promotions. However, to be sure that your special package offer and/or travel event is listed in our database, we need you to send us the vital information. Travel Michigan is always happy to promote your tourism related deals and discounts/packages and events. To submit your events, complete our Event Survey and click “Submit.” To submit deals and discounts/packages, complete the Deals and Packages Survey. If a new tourism business would like to be listed in our database, go to "add your business" and fill out the form.

Travel Michigan would also like to remind tourism businesses and organizations to review their property descriptions on the Travel Michigan web site and to update descriptions as needed.

For more information regarding our database listing of deals and discounts/packages, contact Marilyn Schneider at (517) 241-2605, or Diane Wells at (517) 335-6909.

For more information regarding your property or events, contact Trudy Atwood at (800) 676-1743.

New Welcome Center Promotional Opportunity

As was noted last month, the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) has finalized a contract with Farmington Hills-based Digital 10 Network, Inc. to supply a multimedia broadcast system to all 13 Michigan Welcome Centers. As you are aware, the state's Welcome Centers are operated by Travel Michigan under an agreement with MDOT.

This is the industry's opportunity to get their video promotional message (30-or 60-second ad) in front of up to nine million annual Welcome Center visitors. Digital 10 will have screens up in all Lower Peninsula Welcome Centers south of Clare by this Memorial Day, with all of the centers fully operational by July 4, 2007. More information on the Video Advertising Program.

MDOT and Travel Michigan believe that this is a win-win situation for all the parties involved. The state receives a system that can promote the state's tourism product as well as broadcast any emergency weather/road condition messages at no cost. Travelers get up-to-the-minute advisories plus are exposed to the many exciting Pure Michigan destinations and attractions, and the tourism industry gets another cost effective venue to promote itself.

For details contact Jim Lavender at (248) 755-4552, or Gene Brady at (248) 921-1295.

For additional general information, contact Ron Marabate at (517) 241-7200.

Hotel Occupancy in Michigan, March 2007 Report

The latest report from Smith Travel Research on the performance of the U.S. lodging industry shows occupancy in Michigan rose for the first time in 2007. The March occupancy rate for Michigan was 51.7%, below the national average of 65.8% but above a number of other states. This is in contrast to the last-place standing Michigan held at the end of 2006.

With an occupancy rate of 51.7% for the month of March 2007, Michigan rose 0.5% over the same month last year when its occupancy stood at 51.5%. U.S. occupancy at 65.8% was 0.1% higher than March of last year.

Year-to-date occupancy in Michigan stood at 48.4%, 2.8% lower than the same period last year and the 5th lowest year-to-date occupancy for all states. While relatively low, this performance is somewhat better than the past two years when Michigan's occupancy rates were at, or near, the bottom for nearly three years running. Year-to-date occupancy in the U.S. stood at 59.5%, 0.9% lower than last year.

The Detroit area continues to show a similar performance to that exhibited by Michigan as a whole, though slightly higher than the Michigan average. By the end of 2006, Detroit had ranked 25th among the 25 largest U.S. metro markets in occupancy. But for the third month of 2007, Detroit ranked 23rd with a year-to-date occupancy rate of 55.2%. This was a 1.2% decline from 2006. While U.S. occupancy was 59.5%, the top 25 markets together (including Detroit) stood at 66.5%, 0.7% below March of 2006.

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 20 years. Currently over 23,000 hotels in the U.S. participate in its monthly survey.

For more information, contact Dave Morris at (517) 373-0673.

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