The folks at the Michigan Economic Development Corporation who run the Pure Michigan campaign to attract tourism dollars to the state also keep track of how and where those dollars are being spent. And, not surprisingly, more dollars are coming Michigan’s way as the region continues to recover from the several year decline driven by the COVID pandemic.
A couple of key indicators are occupancy rates and average daily room rates in hotels and other lodging establishments:
Smith Travel Research released the Michigan Lodging Report (2020-2024), which shows Michigan’s August occupancy rate of 69.4% is the highest it has been since 2019, and 1.3% higher than the previous year.
The report also states that August 2024 has witnessed the highest August Average Daily Rate (ADR) for both Michigan and the U.S in the past five years, with an increase of 2.4% for Michigan and 2.7% for the US in August 2024 from the same time last year, reaching $151.4 and $157.84, respectively. Michigan’s ADR in August also outpaced last year’s levels, increasing $3.6 – and is nearly $10 more than August two years ago ($141.7 to $ 151.4).
Pure Michigan also highlighted the full year 2023 ‘Tourism Economics by County’ report. Berrien County fared pretty much as expected among its Southwest Michigan neighbors.
Kalamazoo County attracts the most toursm spending in the region ($744 Million in 2023) vs Berrien County’s $481 Million. Berrien’s tourism take grew 8.6% while Kalamazoo was up 8.2% in 2023.
Van Buren County tourism revenue was up 9 % to $206 Million, while Cass County increased 6 % to $102 Million for the full year of 2023.
The Pure Michigan campaign will soon mark its 20th year, having survived budget cuts in Lansing in recent years. It now appears to be on solid ground at least through Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s current second term. Over its lifetime, ‘Pure Michigan’ has been widely praised among similar statewide themes and promotional labels by marketing professionals and tourism leaders in several states.
