Massachusetts resident Delia Marshall came to Michigan last summer for a family reunion at a beach house on the shores of Lake Michigan. A week later, she left as an ambassador for a state that claims to be home to “the perfect summer.” “We stayed in a house with a private beach and I just […]
Pure Michigan
Posted inBusiness Watch
Plan calls for Pure Michigan to be big, too
The widely praised Pure Michigan advertising campaign has been credited with resurrecting the state’s tourism industry, putting Michigan on the national travel map and giving Michigan residents something to crow about. Now in its seventh year, Pure Michigan has even been called one of the best tourism promotion campaigns of all time. What could managers […]
Posted inBusiness Watch
Next frontier for state tourism — the world
Sarah Nicholls said she observes an odd phenomenon every time she takes a flight from her native England to Detroit’s Metro Airport. “The vast majority of people coming from England are making connections in Detroit — very few are staying in Detroit,” said Nicholls, a tourism expert and associate professor at Michigan State University. Nicholls […]
Posted inBusiness Watch
Bad roads throw up barriers to farmers, auto firms, tourists
Better than most, Cass County resident Cliff Poehlman understands how bad roads raise the cost of doing business. Poehlman farms about 2,000 acres of corn, wheat and alfalfa in southwestern Michigan. He is also a 22-year veteran of the Cass County Road Commission. In recent years, Poehlman said, the commission has been forced to issue […]
Posted inGuest Commentary
Guest column: Pure Michigan’s natural assets are under assault
By Chris Bunch/ Six Rivers Regional Land Conservancy The Michigan Legislature is taking aim at land conservancies, the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund, the Department of Natural Resources and land conservation in general. The land conservancies in Southeast Michigan, along with the rest of the natural resource conservation community here, are surprised, frustrated and dismayed. […]
Posted inMichigan Government
How much of Michigan should public own?
On a sunny June day, government officials joined conservation leaders on a Lake Michigan beach to dedicate the newest jewel of the state’s public lands program — the 173-acre Saugatuck Harbor Natural Area. The spectacular sand dunes near the mouth of the Kalamazoo River were preserved rather than developed when the Michigan Natural Resources Trust […]
Posted inLand O Links
Land O Links
“Fools act on imagination without knowledge, pedants act on knowledge without imagination” — Alfred North Whitehead, English mathematician. * A great deal of energy has been expended in Michigan, and elsewhere, on voting rules, particularly on the question of voter identification. Such laws are meant, of course, to prevent impersonation at the polling place and prevent voter […]
Posted inBusiness Watch
Pure Michigan equals pure gold
About 50 years ago, an Illinois senator reportedly quipped, “A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money.” In 2012, in the world of Michigan tourism, the days of “a billion here” and “billion there” have apparently arrived. A newly released study of the impact of the state’s famous Pure Michigan […]
Posted inQuality of Life
Pure snark: St. Clair Shores man scores with video spoofs
A slow fade in, and a tinkling piano picks out a familiar phrase. The camera watches a familiar Metro Detroit main drag bathed in the golden light of a summer afternoon, while a mellow man’s voice speaks: “Downtown Royal Oak brings to mind one word.” The shot dissolves to a quartet of young men walking […]
Posted inMichigan Government
Pure Michigan credited with $605 million gain
Pure Michigan. The sweeping lake vistas. The woods afire with autumnal splendor. The powdery snow covering a tranquil field. And over each image, the resonant voice of Tim Allen. And behind these ads, the state of Michigan has spent $67 million since 2006 in a bid to draw more tourists — and their dollars — […]
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