michigan.org Sets Record
Kirsten Borgstrom
(517) 335-1871
Lansing, Michigan - With the official kick-off to the summer travel season just under our belts, Michigan's tourism Web site, michigan.org, is bringing potential travelers to Michigan in record numbers. Monday, June 23 set a new record for volume on the michigan.org Web site with 57,432 visits and 35,182 click-throughs to Michigan tourism industry Web sites, the biggest single day in the site's history.
In addition, michigan.org regained the top spot for the most traffic to any state tourism Web site in the country in May. According to Hitwise, an international company which tracks traffic to major Web sites, michigan.org attracted 8.11 percent of all of the traffic to the 50 state tourism Web sites. The next closest state tourism site attracted 7.66 percent in a custom analysis of michigan.org and the 49 other state tourism Web sites.
"Our Pure Michigan marketing effort is driving a record number of potential visitors to michigan.org," said George Zimmermann, Vice President of Travel Michigan, a business unit of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. "We know from independent research that 65 percent of consumers who use michigan.org for tourism information, then travel to and within Michigan. More web traffic means more business at Michigan destinations."
The Pure Michigan campaign is intended to entice travelers to one place that still feels magic, mythic, authentic, untamed, unspoiled, uncompromised, timeless and true. It's Pure Michigan. The campaign communicates to consumers what makes Michigan special and identifies experiences that you can't find anywhere else. A television ad spotlighting Michigan's world-class golf debuted in April, while the remainder of the campaign launched in Chicago, Indianapolis, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Columbus, Dayton, St. Louis, Milwaukee and Ontario, Canada, plus in Michigan, in May. Pure Michigan commercials can be viewed online.
Michigan.org has continued to show growth in number of visitors this year. Web surfers turned to the site nearly four million times through May of 2008, up from three million during the same months of 2007, an increase of 31.6 percent. Tourism is a vital industry in Michigan. Visitors spend $18.1 billion annually traveling in Michigan, generating $874 million in state taxes, and accounting for 192,000 jobs statewide.
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. For more information on traveling in the State of Michigan, visit the official travel web site at michigan.org.