Tourism

The Great Waters update on advances made in 2012: 

Organizational Development for Tourism Based Nonprofits

• Eleven tourism related, nonprofit organizations engaged in strategic planning training, enhancing their ability to better focus and monitor their efforts.
• Six hours of complimentary education on Social Media and Website Best Practices where brought to area businesses and organizations, increasing business leaders' knowledge of how to improve their online presence.
• Two tourism associations invested in brand development in 2012, strengthening their core message to visitors.
• Three tourism associations report that they have restructured or re-engaged their boards and are now meeting in a more proactive fashion.
• Three tourism associations successfully increased their visitor assessments from 3% to 5% providing additional dollars to promote tourism in the region.

Regional  Promotional Development 

• $200,000 in MEDC/Pure Michigan funds have been leveraged! For the fourth year running, representatives from throughout the region pooled funds to participate in a Great Waters of Pure Michigan campaign.  Two tourism associations also had independent campaigns. Collectively these three partnerships represent in excess of $400,000 in radio and online tourism promotion investment for the region. With $200,000 of the $400,000 being matched from Travel Michigan, the collective investment leveraged significantly matched and greatly expanded market reach to potential visitors.
• A single Regional Visitors Guide was published for the Great Waters for the first time in 2012. The Great Waters guide represents the entire five county region, its image rich, story-based format was well received and a second guide is currently under development. An online version is available at www.thegreatwaters.com  While Northern Initiatives provided a design and content framework and aided in the overall project management, production of the guide was driven by community leaders and primarily covered through advertising.
• Three Great Waters related half page ads appeared in the 2012 Michigan Travel Ideas
• Five tourism associations came together in a single exhibit for the Chicago Travel Show in January 2012. Without exception, visitors to the booth were highly engaged, interested in the regions offerings, and seeking singular sources to better understand the regions offerings.  The regional map appeared to be highly valued.
• Private sector businesses increasingly extended offers to area tourism associations to conduct cooperative marketing.
• The Great Waters Steering Committee took on the direct management of regional promotional efforts.

Community/Product Development 

• Nearly $75,000 in grant funds has been awarded for work on enhancements, development, and promotion of the M123 Scenic Byway.
• In May of 2012, with support from the Sault Tribe and USDA, the Eastern Upper Peninsula Regional Planning and Development and Northern Initiatives engaged a diverse cross-section of community and business leaders from Newberry, Whitefish Point, Paradise, and the Sault in a windshield assessment of points of interest along M123. Participants completed a gap analysis of area attractions noting key attributes, opportunities for improvement, and site navigation needs for attractions along the route. The analysis will guide future community development efforts.
• M134 received designation as a Michigan Scenic Byway - ( the Great Waters "Lake Huron Trail".)  The designation positions communities along the Byway to leverage additional development resources.

Market Research

Over 2,110 visitors shared their regional tourism experiences through a summer survey. In July 2012, Civic Research Services, Inc., with support from Northern Initiatives and its partners, fielded a paper-and-pencil survey of visitors to Michigan's Upper Peninsula (UP). 

The purpose of the survey was to collect basic information about travelers to the UP, as a first step in a longer-range process of improving the available base of information on tourists.  Travel and tourism businesses and organizations were asked to distribute the survey to their visitors during a two-week window in time, collect the results, and return them to their local travel association. The survey was ultimately fielded at 63 unique sites across the two regions, including two state parks, various recreational attractions, hotels and other lodging sites, restaurants, and shops. A total of 2,833 surveys were returned, with 2,116 of these from Great Waters visitors and the remaining 717 collected from Wilds of Michigan visitors.

Survey results are being leveraged to support strategic marketing and development efforts throughout the region. 

Regional Industry Collaboration

Tourism leaders and private sector business owners from across the region joined representatives from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Hiawatha National Forest Service, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, the Eastern Upper Peninsula Regional Planning and Development, and Northern Initiatives for a regional tourism forum. The forum resulted in a rich exchange of information, emerging opportunities for stronger collaboration in serving the visitor base, and ideas for enhanced offerings!  At the request of participants the event will be repeated every six months.

Finally a copy of The Future of Michigan's Parks and Outdoor Recreation: A Report to Governor Rick Snyder makes mention of the importance of inspiring greater regional identity, differentiation, and collaboration and sites The Great Waters and others as models. 

Education and Workforce Development

KHS Credit Union a learning experience for student workers

By LINDA LOBECK  - The Daily News

KINGSFORD - Students in the business program at Kingsford High School are getting a chance to put some of their learning into a real life experience with the opening of a school branch of the Iron Mountain-Kingsford Community Federal Credit Union (IMKCFCU).

The four students selected through an application and interview process will be working as employees of the credit union as they deal with customer transactions, do necessary computer work, and also become involved in the marketing of this new branch.

Training, logo design, and learning about the regulations governing a credit union are some of the activities these student employees have been undergoing during the past couple of weeks. And it all leads up to the opening day of the Kingsford High School Credit Union on Tuesday, Jan. 22.

"This is an educational partnership between KHS and the credit union - an initiative that started once the credit union contacted us to see if we were interested in having a school branch. It really works well with the business program at KHS and involves the students," said Lyle Smithson, principal at KHS. more->

Natural Resources

By John Pepin  - The Mining Journal

MUNISING - Two veteran staff members, known widely throughout the local community, have recently retired from the National Park Service at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore after lengthy careers.

Chris Case, facility manager at Pictured Rocks, retired after 38 years with the National Park Service, while David Kronk -known to schoolchildren in the Munising area as "Ranger Dave"- retired from Pictured Rocks after a career spanning more than 31 years.

"What an extraordinary career opportunity I have had," Case said. "To love what I do and work with an organization of dedicated and driven individuals, so passionate about taking care of the most special places in the country, has been incredibly meaningful to me."

Case began his Park Service career as a volunteer intern at Apostle Islands National Lakeshore in Wisconsin.

Case arrived at Pictured Rocks in 1989, where he has served as the facility manager for 23 years. Park officials said that over the course of his career, Case had demonstrated his multidiscipline perspective gained working as an interpreter, resource and visitor protection ranger and through the ranks in the maintenance division. more->

Click HERE for more about the UPWard Initiative.