03/30/2006

Record-Eagle/Douglas Tesner
Tracy Gavord and son Garrett, 7, do some early spring beachcombing along East Grand Traverse Bay near Traverse City State Park during Garrett’s spring break from school in Bay City. “It really is pretty here, and the water in much cleaner than the water by us,” Tracy said. Tourism industry leaders meeting in Mount Pleasant say Michigan needs to spend more to promote tourism.

State to nudge tourism budget

Plan hopes to boost tourism by $3 million

By bill o'brien

bobrien@record-eagle.com

MOUNT PLEASANT — The state will bolster its tourism promotion budget this year, but not to where industry leaders said it needs to be.

Representatives of the Travel Michigan tourism bureau rolled out their 2006 promotion plan Wednesday at the Driving Tourism 2006 conference in Mount Pleasant. It's a plan still in flux as state lawmakers decide how to best utilize a $15 million, one-time appropriation from the 21st Century Jobs fund to boost state tourism.

George Zimmerman, vice president of Travel Michigan, said the plan is to increase tourism spending by $3 million this year — added to the 2005 budget of around $5.7 million — and tack on an extra $6 million in the 2007 and 2008 tourism budgets. That will enable the bureau to expand regional tourism advertising into venues like southern Ohio, Wisconsin and Ontario.

"We've had the same markets for a number of years," Zimmerman said. "We are poised, we are ready as an industry, to take that next step."

For this year, Zimmerman said the travel bureau will continue to focus its promotional money in cities like Chicago, Cleveland and Indianapolis before it expands to other regional markets starting next year. Ideally, Zimmerman said Michigan's promotional efforts should reach around $30 million a year to conduct a national campaign to keep pace with other states like Illinois ($47 million), Pennsylvania ($33 million) and Texas ($30.6 million).

"We're competing in a very competitive game," he said.

Some new wrinkles in this year's program include new advertising and public relations agencies working for the bureau, and expanded partnerships with private groups that will generate around $700,000 in private tourism funding.

Nick Trahair, president of the Grand Traverse Area Hotel & Motel Association, said he's encouraged Lansing is paying more attention to tourism spending. The industry is working harder to tie it to continued economic growth, he said.

"We're coming together as a team, finally," said Trahair, general manager of the AmericInn of Traverse City. "But we need to get to a national campaign to get our message out."

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