Grassroots Alert! Act now or Regret Later!

The Senate has begun work on the budget for 2011 and our industry must act immediately to protect our future. Specifically, the Senate has initially cut Pure Michigan funding for the State's 2011 fiscal year which begins October 1^st.

If unchanged, this will eliminate any possibility of Travel Michigan:

• Marketing the 2010-11 winter sports season.

• Engaging in a robust Pure Michigan national cable TV campaign for summer of 2011.

• Marketing 2011's fall color season.

Here's a recap of where things stand at this point:

Last February, after supporting a $30 million campaign the year before, the Governor announced a $15 million budget for Pure Michigan for 2011. To make things even more uncertain, her proposal provides only $2 million in General Fund support for Pure MI and funds the rest with a $13 million car rental assessment proposal that cannot pass both chambers of the Legislature. Not the start we had hoped for.

Yesterday, after having established a precedent for $15 million in General Fund support for Pure Michigan's current budget, the Senate Appropriations Committee reported legislation out onto the floor that would provide Pure Michigan only $5.4 million for 2011. This comes after hearings and studies which demonstrate that every state dollar invested returns at least $2.23 - to as much as $5.34 in new sales tax revenues that otherwise would not be received. Again ... this is not a good start.

Click here to get contact information for your Senator!

Tell them to fund Pure Michigan at least at the same $15 million level they did for this year.

We will be back to you with additional information as it becomes available.

IMPORTANT!

Please note; we are transitioning away from exclusively communicating with you via email. In addition to email, we'll be communicating with industry supporters via Facebook, Twitter, video, and MLTA's new blog.

To participate in these first two venues, you must boldly step into the age of Social Media. Be brave! (It's where the market's heading anyway)!

Click here to establish your free Facebook account.

Click here to sign up and follow us for FREE on Twitter.

More expanded coverage of legislative issues affecting our future, events and other issues important to lodging and tourism business owners will be available by clicking on our new MLTA Blog.

We must make Pure Michigan funding a part of the conversation in every single election for the House, Senate and the Governor's race.

We need you to make that happen.

Let's get after this as we have before ... TOGETHER!

Peter Yesawich Opens the Pure Michigan Governor’s Conference on Tourism

Peter Yesawich opened the Pure Michigan Governor’s Conference on Tourism today at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island with a very insightful presentation on the state of the travel industry. He talked to the capacity crowd about how technology and our social behaviors are changing the way consumers research and book travel.

Here are a few of the highlights:
- Consumers are using online Metasearch and spending more time looking for the best value
- 87% of travelers say that being able to check lowest fares/rates is the most important feature in a travel website.
- 61% of travelers go exclusively online to plan and research travel
- 1 out 5 online travelers go to blogs and review sites. 61% visit Trip Advisor and 24% go to YouTube for info.
- 16% of travelers have planned a trip as a result of an unexpected marketing email.
- Almost 30% of people in the United States "don't use" all of their vacation time.
- 48% of vacations happen over the weekend, therefore the geographic radius of travel opportunity is shrinking.
- Personalization is a new service model, consumers are willing to pay 20% more for a personalized product.
- A new trend, spas are opening in Airports to service delayed travelers.

These are just a few takeaways from the conference's opening session. To learn more about Peter, visit the website for YPartnership and read more on his blog.