Why Should Michigan’s Tourism Industry Have a Strategic Plan?
By Don Holecek, Editor-in-Chief of Michigan Tourism Business


Elsewhere in this issue of Michigan Tourism Business is an article titled, “Decline in U.S. Market Spurs Action” which contains highlights from a series of presentations at The World Travel and Tourism Council’s (WTTC) annual global summit held this year in Washington, DC.  (This editorial makes references to the contents of that article.)  The theme of this year’s summit focused on the decline in international travel to the U.S. and on this country’s slipping share of the international travel market.  The U.S. Travel Industry Association (TIA) lobbied hard to bring the WTTC summit to the U.S. this year, and Washington, D.C. was purposively selected as the venue because TIA saw it as ideal for its lobbying efforts for increased U.S. government support for the U.S. travel and tourism industry.

In recent years, the U.S. has ranked second after France as a destination for international travelers, yet it ranks near the bottom of major international travel venues in terms of what it spends on promotion.  Even more telling of the lack of importance the U.S. government assigns to the travel industry is the very small contingent of employees who focus on travel in an obscure office somewhere in the bowels of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

There are many similarities between the challenges faced by the travel industry in Michigan and those confronting the U.S. travel industry in the international market. These include:

1.  Growing competition

2.  Major shifts in traditional markets

3.  A non-competitive level of government investment in promotion

4.  Limited visibility within the government infrastructure

5.  The industry is very diverse, loosely organized, and doesn’t communicate effectively and consistently.

6.  Both the Michigan and U.S. travel industries are lobbying to increase the level of government’s investment in promotion.

7.  Neither has a comprehensive, future focused development plan.

We may find a degree of comfort knowing that our challenges are not unique and that even the Disneys and American Expresses are struggling to overcome them.  Beyond learning that our challenges aren’t unique and that they are confounding even the biggest players in our industry, this article contains valuable guidance we can draw upon in developing the new strategic plan for Michigan’s tourism industry.  You may identify others, but those that were most compelling for me include:

1.  Further decline in the market is expected in the U.S. share of the international market, and I expect that a similar scenario confronts the Michigan industry, and we too “need to lay out the blueprint for more communication.”

2.  To cope with projected declines in the market, we too should be developing “partnerships between business and government” and “coalitions…needed for lobbying action.”

3.  “But the problem is that travel, tourism, and hospitality players…are a fragmented bunch.”  They “don’t talk to each other,” and “realize that when they speak as a collective that they get more response in the public sector.”

4.  “…players have acted on their own behalf…and have not been organized or coordinated.”  Subsequently…government [doesn’t know] what we are asking for or what our priorities are.”

5.  “Get all hotel, airline, cruise ships, restaurants, [etc.] together – because Congress counts first [i.e., electoral votes] before it acts.”

6.  “We learned suddenly [in quantitative terns after 9/11] that tourism affects auxiliary goods and services.”  Knowing the economic impact has helped us work with government in a cooperative way.”

7.  “…the tourism industry needs a seat at government…”

8.  “Taxation of travel and tourism, unless a hospitality coalition comes together to fight taxation, will bear heavily on the industry.”

9.  “Key in the travel business…are both resilience and globalization.”

My overall impression of the collective wisdom expressed by the speakers at the global summit is:

1.  The travel industry faces several years of steady decline unless actions are taken to mitigate its causes.

2.  Government can be part of the solution but only if pushed by the private sector to be a full partner. It needs to present a sound economic argument for government support and demonstrate that it has an action agenda which is strongly supported across the industry.

Finally, it is encouraging to see that we in Michigan are well ahead of our peers in our efforts to organize, form partnerships, and develop a plan for the future.