Pure Michigan Travel Campaign Wins Top Awards

From CNN Money.com:

"The Travel Industry Association of America (TIA) honored Travel Michigan with a Mercury Award for the Best State Tourism Advertising Campaign for its Pure Michigan campaign. In addition to receiving the highest award from TIA, the Pure Michigan campaign also won a Mercury Award for the Best State Tourism Television Commercials."

This is quite impressive given the funding crunch in our state. In a June interview, (Summer Means Tourism)George Zimmermann, Vice President of Travel Michigan said,"In 1990 we had the seventh largest state tourism promotion budget and by 2005 we had dropped to 31st. We did get a reprieve when the 21st Century Jobs fund was created. That provided a one-time funding boost that brought us up to the $15.6 million level. So this year we're back up to 17th. But with the 2007 budget we're at the end of that money."

Now let's see if the legislature can maintain adequate funding for tourism promotion in Michigan. Travel Michigan certainly deserves full support, having proven the ability to leverage limited resources through information technology and advertising. Imagine what Travel Michigan could do with funding back up to the 1990 level.