Pure Michigan Facebook Fans Reach 100,000

LANSING, Mich., July 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Pure Michigan Facebook fans took a giant leap since June 1, 2010 by doubling its followers from 50,000 to 100,000 as of July 22. As one of the top leaders in the nation, the Great Lakes States once again demonstrates its successful tourism outreach.

"This has been an amazing month and it isn't over yet," said George Zimmermann, Vice President of Travel Michigan, a business unit of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. "We are thrilled with the number of people who want to be involved with Pure Michigan."

Based on a recent customer satisfaction survey conducted by ForeSee Results, nearly three quarters of the Pure Michigan Facebook fans learned about places and activities in Michigan they did not know about. In addition, a third of those fans were inspired to travel to or within Michigan after reading the posts.

"The Pure Michigan campaign is designed to introduce to the nation the attributes that make Michigan such a popular and unique destination. We have received several encouraging reports this summer from vacation destinations across both peninsulas that out-of-state visitors are filling up resorts, campgrounds and summer events along with Michigan residents," added Zimmermann. Tourism is a major source of revenue for Michigan's economy, yielding $2.23 return on investment from the national campaign and $5.34 regional return on investment from the award-winning Pure Michigan advertising campaign.

Pure Michigan also registered two record breaking days in a row this month with more than 80,000 user sessions on michigan.org, the state's official tourism Web site. This is the second year that Pure Michigan took sail with the Pure Michigan Bayview Mackinac Race last week. The annual race attracted thousands of visitors to the start of the race in Port Huron where more than 200 sail boats and 2,500 crew members headed to the Mackinac Island finish. With Global Positional Tracking (GPS) only available on michigan.org to monitor race boats, the GPS tracking program visitors jumped from 1 million to 4 million over last year.

Reaching record-breaking numbers comes with a well thought out strategy. "We have a terrific team of individuals in Lansing along with our professional associates in advertising, public relations and social media – all focusing on the same goal to increase tourism for the State of Michigan. The Pure Michigan campaign is the spark that ignites and leads the way for all of our marketing activities," Zimmermann noted.

The official state travel and tourism Web site, michigan.org, continues to be a source for Michigan travel information, featuring more than 12,000 attractions, events, hotels, resorts, restaurants and other tourism-related businesses.

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 Michigan travel information and updates go to michigan.org.

SOURCE Travel Michigan