DETROIT (WXYZ) – Come Tuesday June 22nd, most of the state remaining COVID-19 restrictions will be lifted, including the full mask mandate and group gathering restrictions.

“I’m ready for anything, come on Michigan, let’s do it,” said an excited Tanisha Moore, still masked and picking up breakfast for her father on Father’s Day.

Overall optimism among US travelers is on the up, according to new data from Longwoods International, which surveyed 1,000 American adults about their travel mood in mid-June.

It’s information that people like Dave Lorenz, VP of Travel Michigan at Michigan Economic Development Corporation, consider when deciding how best to market Michigan to prospective tourists.

The survey found that 87 percent of people plan to travel within the next 6 months, compared with 57 percent in mid-December.

Lorenz told Action News that the areas of Michigan that are currently in need of the most attention from travelers are cities like Grand Rapids, Lansing, and Detroit.

Your target group is currently still Michigander, people who travel by car in the states or in nearby states like Indiana or Ohio.

“It’s about the regions of the state and the sectors of the travel industry, how they’re going to come back. Basically, Northern Michigan has done very well last year,” said Lorenz.

He said reservations at state parks and campgrounds are already filling up because people are still looking for activities where they can naturally create social distance. His advice is now a book.

“Leisure travel, especially in the north, is recovering,” he said. “City-leisure-adventure travel will pick up again in the third or fourth quarter, maybe even by the beginning of next year.”

“It’s like everyone has this backlog for everything,” said Michael Bagley, who is cautiously optimistic about the easing of restrictions but is also concerned that people are going too fast.

“It’s not over yet, and I think people still need to keep their safety and be careful,” Bagley told Action News.

Only 20 percent of people surveyed in Longwoods International’s most recent study of travel attitudes said the coronavirus would affect their travel plans. In April 2020 there were more than three times as many.

Lorenz and his team at Travel Michigan didn’t even have a budget to run new ads last year.

“Even without a budget … we put together an ad that was done by a family-only recruitment agency and an iPhone ad that was basically just a radio ad that we had produced, the voice of Tim Allen from years ago , and this ad really seemed to fit, “he said.” Here we were in a place where we thought we could use the Pure Michigan brand in a very unique way to bring people together.

His team is now looking to the future with optimism – but is also waiting for an important piece of the tourism cake; Canadian travelers.

“We spoke to our Congress delegation and tried to urge them to get Canadians to reopen this border. This is a big issue for us. Ontario loves Michigan as much as we love Ontario, “he said.

The border between the US. and Canada will be closed until at least July 21st.