Muskegon County's tourism and marketing goals remain similar to those of the statewide Pure Michigan campaign.
Like their partners at Travel Michigan, staff at the Muskegon County Convention and Visitors Bureau are working to bring guests to the state by changing outdated or inaccurate perceptions, creating more things for people to do and highlighting the region's abundant natural beauty.
"The power of the Pure Michigan brand really can't be underestimated," said Muskegon County Development Director Bob Lukens. "It's one of the most powerful brands in America, so, as a convention bureau here in Muskegon, we work with Pure Michigan to tap into the power of the brand."
Lukens expanded on several of the county's strategies in front of a full house at the Holiday Inn Muskegon Harbor on Friday, March 25. Here are a few highlights:
Partnerships
The Muskegon CVB partners with Pure Michigan in a variety of ways, most notably through its winter and summer marketing campaigns. Two of Muskegon County's top attractions, Michigan's Adventure and the Muskegon Winter Sports Complex, are prominently featured in the campaigns that focus mainly on Chicago and Ohio.
"We're finding more visitors are coming from Ohio market," Lukens said
Muskegon also has a partnership with Michigan's Beachtowns, a cooperative effort by West Michigan cities to draw people to the area. St. Joseph-Benton Harbor, South Haven, Saugatuck-Douglas, Holland, Grand Haven and Silver Lake Sand Dunes-Hart are all involved.
Muskegon County advertisements of the color tours and luge track are also featured in Pure Michigan's, fall and winter travel guides, respectively.
New website
Like Travel Michigan, staff at the Muskegon CVB is working to unveil a new and improved website in hopes that it will encourage prospective visitors to further explore the area's amenities.
"We want to make it a more responsive site and to highlight our partners more," Lukens said, "We want to keep them (visitors) on our website for a longer period of time."
But what about the statewide website?
The Muskegon County page is the 15th most visited on www.Michigan.org.
"Of course we would like to raise that number but we have a lot of competition in this state," Lukens said. "There are many destinations and many destinations, even in our own state, that people haven't discovered yet."
Focus on sports
Semipro teams like the Muskegon Lumberjacks, Risers, Mustangs, Lake Hawks and Ironmen have increased the sports profile of Muskegon County. The CVB recently hired a sports sales person to make Muskegon more of a focus as a sports and entertainment destination.
"You will see a lot more sports marketing in the future," Lukens said.
Looking forward
Here are a few of the Muskegon County CVB's initiatives for 2016:
Focus aggressively on sales outreach
Optimize ad buys and continue Travel Michigan ad partnerships
Increase local partnerships.
Increase earned media opportunities.
Build group tour awareness of Michigan's Heritage Park.
Continue event and festival promotion.
Promote retail tourism development.
Accommodation tax collection revenues
Muskegon County has been trending upward in accommodation tax collection revenues for the last seven years thanks in large part to higher occupancy rates and increased daily rates.
2009 - $748,881
2010 - $845,152
2011 - $852,637
2012 - $920,332
2013 - $939,153
2014 - $1,096,033
2015 - $1,152,610
The years of 2014 and 2015 are the first time the accommodations tax collection revenues have exceeded $1 million.
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