The Pure Michigan campaign, which has been working to brand and transform the perception of Michigan for the last 15 years, will focus on domestic and international travelers this summer as opposed to a nationwide campaign.

Travel to Michigan, an arm of the Michigan Economic Development Corp.Spends $ 7.5 million on warm weather advertising campaign launched in the Midwest this month. A further $ 1.6 million from 20 industry partners complement the campaign, each comprising $ 400,000 in contributions from Traverse city tourism, Experience Grand Rapids and the Great Lakes Bay Regional Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Travel Michigan only ran nationwide and regional campaigns this year, encouraging people to “travel safely” amid COVID-19, and ditching national advertisements that have helped attract vacationers from New York, Texas to the state to lure and elsewhere.

“This is not the year this is done anyway,” Dave Lorenz, vice president of Travel Michigan, told state lawmakers this week.

“A large part of our plan this year is to keep the people in the state,” said Lorenz in a presentation to the House’s Committee on Commerce and Tourism. “Honestly, if we had a nationwide campaign it wouldn’t be helpful because we want people to travel, we just don’t want them to travel far. We want them to stay in the state, we want them to stay in the region, and we want them to do it safely. ”

Pure Michigan resumed after the state failed to fund the campaign in fiscal 2020, and is operating on $ 15 million in 2021, far less than the $ 35 million to $ 36 million annually given to Travel Michigan . Lorenz described the $ 15 million for Pure Michigan as “an appropriate amount for us this year as we are in this ramp-up time”.

In promoting the state as a summer destination, Travel Michigan’s ads focus on “lesser-known” places, encourage people to travel safely, and use the “let’s catch up” theme for lost time to fuel an industry revitalization.

“The industry has been completely destroyed by COVID and the effects of the necessary changes we have had to make to societal norms. Pure Michigan will play a big role in getting us back on track, ”said Lorenz. “We have to do all we can, of course, for businesses, for communities across the state, and we’re going to do this on a smaller budget than we’ve done in a long time.”

The warm weather campaign that began this month will run through July 4th and will feature television, radio and billboard advertising in key markets. The ads are for Chicago, Ft. Wayne, Green Bay, Minneapolis, Toledo, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, South Bend, St. Louis and Louisville. In-state ads appear in Detroit, Flint, Grand Rapids, Lansing, Traverse City, and Marquette. Travel Michigan also uses digital and social media ads.

All of the ad graphics have the “Travel Safe” icon to encourage people to follow safety protocols, Lorenz said.

“Everything we’re doing right now is about travel, to encourage people to do the right thing,” he said. “We want people to travel safely to get our business world back and get those jobs back, and we’re not going to wait for a better time. We need to start this communication now. ”

Travel Michigan credits Pure Michigan for driving $ 26.3 billion in 2019, which generated $ 2.9 billion in state and local tax revenue and directly supported 230,000 jobs. The agency does not currently have any data for 2020.

Even if it were so, Lorenz said: “These numbers would be bleak anyway.”