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Speech on Michigan Tourism (As Prepared)
Delivered by Governor Jennifer Granholm on October 6, 2003
At the Valley Plaza Resort, Midland, Michigan
 Thank you, George (Zimmermann - VP Travel Michigan), Steve (Hamp - Chairman, Michigan Travel Commission), and Bill (Norman - CEO, Travel Industry Association of America), and thank you to all of the rest of you for being here this afternoon.
When I looked at my schedule a few weeks ago and saw today’s remarks on my calendar, I had visions of George and Dave and I on a bus full of media driving for days and days from Lansing to Traverse City to Grand Haven to Detroit to see all of you...thank goodness you’re all here in the same place.
As I hope you all know, I consider myself to be one of the states’ biggest boosters of tourism. So much so that I spent a week this summer touring the state and promoting travel within Michigan as an excellent vacation option for our citizens.
During my admittedly whirlwind tour of our fair state, I got to see and experience all the things that make Michigan such a great place in which to live and vacation. It was truly great – I had chicken at Zehnders; I drank wine in Traverse City; I ate fudge on Mackinac Island; I had baklava in Dearborn; I had southern peach cobbler at Sweet Georgia Brown's in Detroit…it’s a wonder they didn’t have to roll me home after the tour…but, truly it was amazing.
We have so much to be proud of in our state. I don’t have to tell you about all of our attractions and museums and restaurants and golf courses…but, being out there on the road reminded me of the magic of this state, and I think sometimes people here at home need to be reminded of their own connection to this amazing place.
I have been blessed to have lived in several different countries and cities over the course of my life and have traveled to a number of other countries.
I can stand here this afternoon and tell you without a moment’s hesitation that there are few things more beautiful than watching the growing sunlight of a Michigan summer morning on Mackinac Island, giving everything a soft turquoise and bright white crispness, while the green tree leaves frame the picture.
Often, during the summer months when I could make it up there, I would rise early in the morning just to sit in the quiet solitude of the porch. It was just little ole me with my cup of coffee and the sounds of early birds singing underneath a pale blue morning sky.
It offered the kind of serenity that was therapeutic and invigorating all at once. God created this place, and oh, is it good. But, that’s not just on Mackinac Island, that kind of respite can be found all throughout our state.
I can tell you that there are few things more powerful than standing on the map of Africa at the Charles Wright Museum, names etched in the bronze plates beneath your feet, representing the stories and histories of thousands of men and women brought to this country against their will but who now proudly call it home.
Or of the – literally – electric connection you can feel to our country’s milestones when you stand in Thomas Alva Edison’s Menlo Park laboratory in the spectacularly renovated Greenfield Village at The Henry Ford.
That’s why what you do is so important. Your business provides rest and relaxation and fun…but, it provides us all with a reminder of our sense of place – it’s tourism in Michigan that’s a mental post-it-note about who we are as Michiganians. We are hunters and fishers and outdoorsmen and women. We are hikers and museum-goers and foodies. We are apple pickers and sailors and snowmobilers. We are golfers and skiers and Great Lakes swimmers. And, you all give us the opportunity to make those connections.
Where else but up north can you take a pair of swimming trunks and a down vest on the same vacation?
Where else but up north can you deeply breathe in the sweet smell of a stand of white pine trees?
But, perhaps more importantly than all of that – you help drive this state’s economy. Depending on how you count it, tourism is the state’s number two or three industry.
Your dinners and room reservations and admission fees and tee times support 188,000 jobs and generate $868 million in state taxes. That’s big bucks…and it’s critical to everything else we do in government.
So, I’m here to tell you today that as leaders of the state’s tourism community, I am your partner in getting the word out on Michigan. Because we are known for our innovation in the automobile industry and manufacturing, there is still a tendency by many outside our state to view the entire state as gritty and heavily industrial.
But, we take a back seat to no one – not California, not Massachusetts, Florida, Texas or any other state with a coastline and heavy tourism industry – when it comes to all the natural and recreational assets we have to offer.
That is why I stand before you, today, as a believer, a believer in your industry, a believer that tourism development and tourism promotion are essential to the economic development of the state of Michigan.
In fact, the attributes that make us a great visitor destination – cool cities, outstanding arts and culture, scenic beauty, and outdoor recreation – are also the quality of life amenities other industries are looking for when they decide where to locate or expand a business or plant.
That’s why I enthusiastically spent six days in June traveling the state to promote Michigan travel to Michigan residents. That’s why I recorded radio and television public service announcements promoting Michigan vacations. And, that’s why I am here today.
We need to elevate the profile of the tourism industry within state government, in the media, and in the business community. We have a great story to tell, and we, all of us, need to be out telling it.
Just look at the new data released at this conference. Michigan ranks 7th of the 50 states for leisure travel by visitors. Visitor spending last year was $15 billion – that’s billion with a “B”.
So, while things in state government are SO tight, we can’t afford NOT to commit to bringing more people here to spend their money. I know that this year, we had to trim the state’s travel promotion budget, and I can’t promise that things aren’t going to be tight in the future.
While business travel struggles, leisure travel continues to grow in Michigan, gaining four to five percent annually, depending on who you talk to. And, given that this growth in leisure travel occurred during a time of reduced promotion budgets and a sluggish economy, think what we can accomplish when the economy recovers, and we can increase our investment in tourism.
Many of you are already engaged in this, but we might do more niche marketing when we have the money. I know we promote golf. But, for example, while I was at the Arab American summit, many of our Middle Eastern friends were fascinated by water – the vastness of the Great Lakes and the fact that they contained fresh water. It’s an interesting market.
Or Europeans who are tired of vacationing along the crowded Caribbean and who want to come to the U.S. but would feel like they have found a hidden beach spot along Lake Huron or Lake Michigan.
Can we do more of a targeted national promotion for those who love to hunt in October?
Can we do more of a targeted national campaign for those who would love a snowmobile vacation or a cross-country ski vacation in the U.P.?
As you know, I have been promoting a cool cities concept, designed to attract the so-called “creative class.” These are young, tech savvy, entrepreneurial movers and shakers who are the likely owners and employees of the kinds of companies we are trying to attract – life sciences companies, homeland security companies, advanced manufacturing companies, technology companies.
To attract and retain the creative class in Michigan, we need to continually improve our cities, making them cool places to live, work, and play.
Imagine…
- Glass meeting rounded limestone, brick arches, and marble pillars, architectural surprises;
- Library coffee houses;
- Street hotdog vendors;
- Wide sidewalks under outdoor café tables carrying the scent of hot dishes from Indonesia and Mexico, Italy and France;
- People pressing, walking on each other’s heels;
- Music houses with loud and smooth sounds of jazz and rock;
- Pink, purple and yellow flowers bursting from hanging baskets;
- Art galleries and haberdashers and bakeries lined with baguettes;
- Foreign accents and short skirts and Brooks Brothers suits;
- Lofts and brownstones punctuated by plate glass and stained glass;
All of these things steamily blended together in one delicious cup like the rich beans at the morning Starbucks shop. Ahhhh.
A venue. A destination. A magnet.
Tourism promotion has an important role to play in the cool cities strategy. We need to get the word out to the creative class across the country that cool things are happening in Michigan. That we have vibrant, energetic cities crawling with culture and night life. That we have outstanding outdoor recreation including great golf, fishing, hiking, biking, skiing, snowboarding, and snowmobiling. And that we are welcoming of the diverse cultures that make up the creative class.
We need to create a positive buzz about Michigan as a cool place to live, work, and play, and we need to start now. So, I’m here to issue a challenge to Travel Michigan to take up this cause…to market a cool Michigan to the nation and world.
And, to all of you, I say keep on innovating, keep on creating new reasons for people to travel to Michigan.
From the new convention center in Grand Rapids to the Rouge Plant tours in Detroit, significant new attractions are popping up all over the state, and we have to keep stimulating that kind of growth.
I’m particularly enthusiastic about the partnership between Travel Michigan and the Department of History, Arts and Libraries to package and promote Michigan’s maritime heritage.
And speaking of Travel Michigan, I congratulate them on a record-setting year. They generated more than $900,000 in private sector advertising dollars by working with you, the tourism industry.
Web sessions at michigan.org are up 88 percent over the same period last year. And their 2003 radio advertising was given a Mercury Award by the National Council of State Tourism Directors for the best radio campaign in the country. Congratulations to the entire Travel Michigan team.
I am thrilled to be with you for my first Michigan Tourism Conference. And I can assure you, it won’t be my last! Thank you.
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