This week michigan.org, the official State of Michigan Travel Web site, hit the 10 million mark for user sessions for the first time ever. The popular site has already out-paced last year by nearly three million user sessions for an increase of 41.9 percent. So far this year consumers have visited the site at an average daily rate of 28,916, up almost 10,000 sessions per day over 2005.

State tourism officials credit the new Pure Michigan marketing campaign for driving more traffic to the tourism content on michigan.org. The Pure Michigan branding campaign was launched in three new markets in May of 2006—Cincinnati, Milwaukee, and Ontario, Canada.

Since Thanksgiving weekend, site visits are up 45.3 percent. “With the key winter sports season upon us, this report is great news for Michigan’s tourism economy,” said Travel Michigan Senior Vice President George Zimmermann. “Our resorts and trails will be filling up with skiers, snowboarders, snowmobilers, and cross country enthusiasts.” Travel Michigan research shows that approximately two-thirds of all consumers who use michigan.org for tourism information travel to and within Michigan.

A survey of the visitors to michigan.org, analyzing the effectiveness of the michigan.org web site, shows that 67 percent of the web visitors did indeed travel in Michigan after visiting the michigan.org web site. As consumer interest in Michigan as a destination continues to grow, michigan.org is the Internet gateway to travel information, featuring more than 11,000 attractions, events, hotels, resorts, restaurants and other tourism-related businesses. Visitors spend $17.5 billion annually traveling in Michigan, generating $971 million in state taxes, and accounting for 193,000 jobs statewide, making tourism a vital component of Michigan’s economy.

Travel Michigan, a division of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, is the State of Michigan’s official agency for the promotion of tourism. Travel Michigan markets the state’s tourism industry and provides valuable visitor information services.
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