04/07/2006

Tourism in U.P. improved last year

FROM WIRE REPORTS

MARQUETTE — The news isn't all bad for Michigan tourism — at least in the Upper Peninsula.

The statewide hotel occupancy rate was 53.5 percent in 2005, down 7 percent from the previous year and the lowest rate in the country, said Tom Nemacheck, director of the U.P. Travel and Recreation Association. But the U.P.'s occupancy rate jumped 8 percent.

The peninsula's travel and tourism groups began marketing to other states several years ago, Nemacheck said Wednesday during a session sponsored by the Lake Superior Community Partnership.