Posted on 11/07/2016 11:20:00 AM PST by MichCapCon
Since 2006 this state has spent $295 million on an advertising campaign called Pure Michigan that is intended to draw tourism dollars here from other states. But a new study shows that state-funded efforts to promote tourism are mostly a blunder.
The marketing scheme is widely recognized thanks to its homey TV commercials showing picturesque Michigan locations and narrated by film and television star Tim Allen.
Michigan’s Legislature appropriated $34 million to the program for the current year, $1 million more than last year. Pure Michigan is managed by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, which is the state’s economic development agency.
The study’s authors, Mike LaFaive, director of fiscal policy at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, and Dr. Michael Hicks, a Ball State University professor and Mackinac Center board of scholars member, analyzed decades of tourism promotion data from almost every state to determine whether such programs have had an economic payoff.
“After analyzing 39 years’ worth of tourism promotion data from 48 states, we believe the answer is a resounding no,” the authors said.
LaFaive and Hicks conclusion is that no more taxpayer dollars should be spent on Pure Michigan.
The authors created a national statistical model to determine whether and how much effect tourism promotion spending had on the industries that typically benefit from more visitors — lodging, arts, amusements and recreation.
LaFaive and Hicks wrote that, “…for every $1 million in additional spending by a state on tourism promotion, there was an associated increase of $20,000 in additional economic activity shared by the entire accommodations industry in that state.” That’s a negative 98 percent return on investment.
Although their statistical model was built with data from around the nation, when it came to spending on these ads, “Michigan did not differentiate itself from the average,” according to the study.
The Michigan Legislature authorized spending an additional $1 million on the program this fiscal year, up from $33 million last year. “Our study suggests that will only result in an increase in economic activity of $20k shared by all hotels and motels in Michigan,” LaFaive said in an email.
For arts and crafts industries, the study’s model projects that in an average state, “for every $1 million increase in state tourism promotion, artists shared less than an additional $35,000.”
Despite these miniscule returns even to the industries most directly benefitted by the spending, MEDC has claimed that Pure Michigan is successful, recently boasting that in 2015 every dollar spent on it yielded a jump of $7.67 in state tax revenue.
But LaFaive and Hicks dispute the MEDC’s methods for determining whether the spending is cost-effective, saying they’re “steeped in secrecy.” The estimates were created by a consulting firm that has been the beneficiary of successive no-bid contracts from the MEDC. Yet the firm refuses to meet basic transparency requirements that would allow independent investigators to check its work.
Back in 1997 we drove from Chicago to the UP via Green Bay; toured the waterfalls, waded into the very chilly Lake Superior and enjoyed the drive down the western shore back to Chicago. It was a memorable week for us and something I’d do again. Love the Pure Michigan ads, especially the music (soundtrack from Cider House Rules). Sorry the expenditure by the state government hasn’t produced the desired result.
GMTA. See Post #40.
I went to Michigan Tech for my undergrad.
I used to stand on Brockway Mountain’s inland side on gusty days and dream of hang gliding.
Left after graduation for San Diego to start my career, found an instructor, got my hang IV rating, flew Torrey Pines and the Mountains for the next 9 years - the 90s basically.
Gliders: Wills Wing HP (jokingly called “hard pound”, small flare window) and x2 Euro Sports.
Sites: Elsinore, Mt. Laguna, Little Black, Big Black, Horse, Soboba, Torrey Pines, Blossom Valley
:)
I use another one:
They say Beirut used to be the “Paris of the Middle East.”
Now, Paris is the “Beirut of Europe.”
Where we live is redneck pinejack woods and crystal clear lakes. Friendly good people on a dirt road, red fox, pileated woodpeckers, northern lights that we watch from the bedroom window. Everyone carries and there is zero crime in our small town of 1000 where everyone kinda knows each other.
That’s great. You must be near the kirtland warblers
That looks a lot like where I grew up in Western PA.
It is too bad that states like MI and PA are known by the bad (Detroit and Philly), and not for good places outside of the liberal hellholes.
So they tell me. We get groups from Japan and all over the world to see them. Makes the local papers...but we have never seen one. That we know, at least.
-98% ROI? Gosh, who could say no to that deal?
WOW! HOORAY adventurous Eddie 01. My mom (RIP) was born in raised near Calumet/Kearsarge (Traprock Valley). My parents retired near Copper Harbor (Lac LaBelle). Me and dad (RIP) used to go to Tech hockey games when I was in the U.P. visiting. Keewenaw was our summer vacation every year when we were kids.
There was a forest watch tower you could climb shortly after the turn off 41 to Lac Labelle.
I looked for it a few years back, but learned it had be removed.
Those were the days.
The old iron mining towns in the Western U.P. remind me a whole lot of Western PA.
There is a town in Lancaster County, PA called Intercourse.
Years ago they had a contest to pick a new travel slogan for PA.
One guy submitted this entry:
“Virginia May Be For Lovers, But Only Pennsylvania Has Intercourse!”
That wimpy RINO Governor Dick Thornburgh wouldn’t approve it.
I climbed the fire tower (road off to the left as you were going down the final hill toward Lac LaBelle) many times. I was sad to see it gone one summer. My dad built the big A-frame on the far side of the lake. The tallest pine trees were (and still are) on that property. Great memories.
Mom’s cousin Pauline is still on the zoning board...
http://keweenawcountyonline.org/commissions-zba.php
I disagree with your premise. Ive been a “Non-Resident” in CA on Active Duty since 1987 and will soon hang’em up. I enlisted out of Detroit, I was raised there...Detroit is small, but Wayne County is large enough that the entire state is held captive by its vote; it impacts the rest of the state in very significant ways. The “size” of the big D matters much less than the density of its population. I will not ever live there again...ever. A blue state that wants so much to turn even bluer...California’s little brother.
Had my daughter who was only six years old when she first went there in the 1970's, drive my wife and self last year. Visited Gay, Michigan and had a beer at the Gay Bar. (Joseph E. Gay founder of the town). Took the cog railway which went 541 feet underground near Hancock and Houghton. At the end a huge stope appeared. I got claustrophobia and had to sing an old hymn on the way back out. Welsh miners used to sing it. Nobody minded. Excuse my ramble
lol
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