The Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island officially opens this weekend, signaling the beginning of Michigan's spring-summer tourism season. This year marks the 125th anniversary for the iconic hotel, and reservations for the 385-room hotel are up 4 percent over this period last year. Some summer weekends are nearly sold out.
Guests are ready to vacation and planning earlier, which bodes well for the travel industry, said Ken Hayward, executive vice president and managing director of the Grand Hotel.
"We are looking forward to a really good year," he said.
So, too, are other businesses that make up Michigan's $17 billion tourism industry. The state expects a 6 percent jump in tourism spending this year, according to a forecast by Michigan State University tourism professors Dan McCole and Sarah Nicholls. That's even after last year's busier-than-expected travel season, marking a third consecutive year of a travel spending recovery.
Furthermore, average gasoline prices statewide fell below $4 a gallon during the past month, lightening the travel budget burden.
Even if fuel costs spike above the sensitive $4-a-gallon threshold, the impact will be low, said Bill Rasmussen, owner of Traverse City's Island View Cottages.
"I've owned the business since 1975, and I've learned that people are going to vacation no matter what," Rasmussen said. "They will find a way to afford it."
Nancy Cain of AAA Michigan agrees.
"If they really want to go away, they'll cut back on souvenirs or dinners out to offset any rising gas prices," she said.
Mother Nature will be the driving force behind a superior season, MSU's McCole said. Just as Michigan's warmer-than-usual winter weather hurt the snowmobiling and ski industry this year, a rainy or cool summer can scare off the all important last minute traveler.
McCole's research finds that 30 percent of travelers book trips six days or less before departure, allowing them to consult the weather forecast. If the traveler is affluent, the number climbs to 38 percent.
The weather has already helped Jane Verplank, owner of Saugatuck's Victorian Inn, a bed and breakfast in the western Michigan arts community. March's warm temperatures brought vacationers to Saugatuck earlier than usual.
"I've made three times as much in the first quarter than I did at this time last year," Verplank said. At the rate reservations are going— several summer weekends are booked solid at her seven-room inn— she expects to keep that pace.
"The early spring got people thinking about summer vacation, so they began planning earlier," she added.
It helps, too, that there is pent-up demand to take an escape, since many winter jaunts were cancelled after lack of snow, said Mark Hitchcock, director at the Tawas Area Chamber of Commerce. Tawas promotes its northeastern location — the "Sunrise Side of Michigan" — on Lake Huron.
Michiganians also will be competing for reservations with tourists from other states, reports Brian Lawson, director of public relations for Crystal Mountain Spa and Resort in Thompsonville, about 30 miles southwest of Traverse City.
"We've got a double-digit increase in reservations from guests who are visiting from other states" for business and leisure travel, Lawson said. "I credit the nationwide Pure Michigan ads for that."
The Tim Allen-voiced Pure Michigan advertising campaign brought record numbers of out-of-state visitors to Michigan in 2011, a study by Longwoods International shows. It motivated an estimated 3.2 million trips to Michigan last year, with 1.2 million tourists crossing borders to get here.
"Those visitors spent $1 billion at Michigan businesses, paying $70 million in Michigan taxes," said George Zimmermann, vice president for Travel Michigan, part of the public-private Michigan Economic Development Corp. "We increased our advertising budget to $12 million this year, so those numbers should be even bigger."
As long as the weather cooperates, AAA Michigan's Cain quipped, "It should be the summer of our content."
Source: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120504/BIZ/205040412/1361/Numbers-looking-up-for-summer-tourism-in-Michigan
