The Michigan Tourism Strategic Plan was unveiled Monday at the Driving Tourism 2007 conference by the Michigan Tourism Planning Council. Michigan's tourism industry generates $17.5 billion dollars in annual revenue, 200,000 jobs and almost $1 billion in state tax revenue, and the architects of the plan have set the goal of growing Michigan to be one of the top five travel destinations in the nation.
On the organization side, the plan seeks to build the leadership, organizational structures and political alliances needed to push Michigan's tourism industry to the top. It also talks about builing collaboration and communication systems.
From the perspective of the tourism "product," it talks about providing the research and technical assistance to enable effective private and public sector investment in tourism and also the importance of paying attention to the customer's experience.
You can get the Michigan Tourism Strategic Plan from TravelMichiganNews.org.
Also see Tourism plan: Spend more in the Traverse City Record-Eagle.
3 Comments
Interesting article "Michigan Tourism Strategic Plan unveiled". The Plan is ambitious but wonderfully laid out. It's about time! Let's do it! But rumor had it at the conference that the MSU Tourism Center, the entity who had the vision for the plan, was responsible for moving the industry to create the plan, bringing all the partners together to work collaboratively, and key in the success of the plan being written, is closing its doors. WHAT!? If true, what signal is MSU sending our industry at this critical juncture? Apparently due to budget cuts and other political factors, resources to support the Center have been removed over the last few years and there's currently no plan to retain its staff or continue the fine work it has done over the last 20+ years on behalf of the industry as a whole? SAY AGAIN?! How or will MSU continue to support the industry as it has in the past? If not through the Center, where will the industry obtain the services it is losing? Who at MSU has the master plan for helping to support our industry's needs, and those needs laid out in the Plan? How can this happen? This seems to be very ironic.....almost hypocritical.....someone needs to ask some hard questions.
I have heard that rumor as well. I also heard that there were plans afoot for something to replace it. I was given a contact but haven't had the time to follow it up!
We channel so much money to industry and supporting it, but I feel that we really force tourism (which is a huge economic driver) to go it alone.
Yes, I've heard about the "replacement" as well....but as I understood it, it would have a commercial recreation focus and not necessarily address the needs of all sectors of the industry....I may have that all wrong.
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