Michigan’s eye-popping tourism marketing web site — www.michigan.org — is the most popluar state tourism web site for the third year in a row, the Grand Rapids Press reports.
Let’s hope the good folks on the Michigan Senate Finance Committee see that good news. Because they continue to sit on a package of bills that could provide a sustainable funding source for state tourism promotion that repays the state multiple times over for each dollar spent.
Here’s a repeat of our post last week on this topic…
Remember those great Pure Michigan ads that captured the airwaves the past couple years?
Here’s a reminder…
You can still watch these great ads online, but not many other places.
…
The Freep explained in a pointed editorial this week
Coming off a yearlong cycle that pushed “Pure Michigan” scenes deeply into the national consciousness, the state needs to sustain that investment. Travel promotion is one of the few sure bets in economic stimulus: Each tax dollar spent on advertising returns $2.86 in new taxes, according to a study of 2004-08 spending, in effect nearly tripling the original outlay and ensuring the growth of tourism-related jobs.
The success of last year’s campaign showed up in many telling anecdotes, chief among them that Michiganders noticed far more out-of-state license plates than usual in almost every corner of the state.
But the Pure Michigan campaign can’t succeed with only a Brigadoon-like emergence from the mists every few years. Last year’s $30-million allocation for nationwide exposure dwindled to $5.4 million in the fiscal year that began Oct. 1. It is imperative that the Legislature figure out promptly how to fund Travel Michigan’s budget for its summer and fall advertising campaign — which needs to start in March, when people begin planning their summer trips in earnest.
There is an answer to this problem…
The Michigan House has passed a package of bills that would provide a sustainable, long-term funding stream for Michigan tourism promotion.
The package passed the House on a 96 to 9 vote in December.
Those bills are now collecting dust in the Senate Finance Committee as out of state tourists begin to think about their summer vacation plans.
If this bothers you, call or email the Senate Finance Committee and demand they pass the House’s tourism promotion package. Or, if senators have a better idea on how to get great return on investment while boosting Michigan tourism, urge them to negotiate a solution with the House.
Here are the names, numbers, and emails for the members of the Senate Finance Committee…
Chairwoman Nancy Cassis, (517) 373-1758, SenNCassis@senate.michigan.gov
Vice Chairman Jud Gilbert, (517) 373-7708, SenJGilbert@senate.michigan.gov
Minority Vice Chairwoman Gilda Jacobs, (517) 373-7888, SenGJacobs@senate.michigan.gov
John Pappageorge, (517) 373-2523, SenJPappageorge@senate.michigan.gov
Mark Jansen, (517) 373-0797, SenMJansen@senate.michigan.gov
Deb Cherry, (517) 373-1636, SenDCherry@senate.michigan.gov
Gretchen Whitmer, (517) 373-1734, SenGWhitmer@senate.michigan.gov
Clerk: Traci Gorman, (517) 373-1758
LANSING — Good news: Michigan is topping a list that doesn’t have to do with job loss or outmigration.
For the third consecutive year michigan.org, the state of Michigan’s official travel and tourism Web site, has earned the title as most popular state tourism Web site in America.
The web page garnered more than 12.6 million hits in 2009, nearly a 8 percent increase over 2008.
Michigan.org received more visits than any other state tourism Web site in 2009, according to Hitwise, an online measurement company.
“Our Pure Michigan marketing effort is driving a record number of potential visitors to michigan.org,” said George Zimmermann, vice president of Travel Michigan, a business unit of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation.
Michigan tourism is an $18 billion-a-year industry, employing 192,000 and generating $874 million in annual state tax revenues.
Click-throughs from the site to Michigan tourism industry Web sites also set a new record, averaging 16,748 per day, a total of 6,112,994 during the year.
The state — also for the third year in a row — is the top “official” U.S. tourism office Web sites in the use of social media.
Michigan is also in the top spot for the use of popular social media outlets including Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube and others, according to Gammet Interactive’s study, “How Social is Your State DMO.”
The hits are a sign that people are looking to Michigan for their leisure travel, said Zimmermann.
“We know from independent research that 65 percent of consumers who use michigan.org for tourism information, then travel to and within Michigan,” he said.
