LANSING – Some lawmakers hoping to boost the number of tourists visiting Michigan say a bigger budget for promotion might help.

The state’s own promotional agency, Travel Michigan, gets its operating money from general taxes and must compete with other programs for state funds.  One fear is that the budget cutbacks mean there won’t be enough to support one of Michigan’s mega-industries, said Rep. Tim Moore, R-Farwell.

“We’re looking for a place to get the money for an increase from,” Moore said.  “But at this point we don’t have a definite place to pull it from.”

The Michigan Hotel, Motel and Resort Association is a part of the group Tourism Improving Michigan’s Economy (TIME).  Along with the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, the Upper Peninsula Travel and Recreation Association, and others, TIME is lobbying for more funds to promote tourism. 

“It’s a bottom dollar investment,” said Steve Yencich, president of the hotel association.  “We need to go into states with higher amounts of consumer confidence. 

“The number we’re after is up significantly from the current budget, but the problem is that we need to be in a better competitive place with surrounding states.

“You can have the best product on the market,” he said.  “But if no one knows about it, then no one will buy it.  We have a national product available, but we’re not giving it national attention.”

Currently, Travel Michigan’s budget focuses for state tourism promotion on three main advertising markets: Chicago, Indianapolis and Cleveland.

Moore said, “We only promote the state in three areas outside of the state, and the UP is not going to see people from those areas come all the way up.  If we had more dollars we’d be able to get the message out more.”

Businesses in the Upper Peninsula that rely on tourism see only a trickle of people from those three areas, he said.

The UP’s main pool of non-Michigan tourists comes from cities like Milwaukee and Minneapolis Moore said.

“We have a tremendous amount that we can offer the nation, and people would drive here,” he said.  “We also need to go after Ontario—we can reach those markets.”

A Travel Michigan study examined the agency’s investments in the three primary advertising markets.

“If you look at the study, the return on the dollar is good and it’s something we have to do,” Moore said.

A Travel Michigan official said “We spent about $3 million in those markets last year and it generated $165 million for Michigan.”

“The return on investments was about $3.43 per dollar we spent,” said Vice President George Zimmermann.

The overall tourism promotion budget is $7.5 – $8 million a year.

“The matter of how to fund promotion is really an issue for the Legislature to work out,” Zimmermann said.  “But we do know that we’ve seen an erosion in our funding.”

Last year Michigan ranked 31st in the amount that it spent on promotions.  In 1990, it ranked 7th, Zimmerman said.

“We’ve gone from one of the better promoted states to kind of middle of the pack,” he said. “It’d be like the auto companies trying to sell their products only in three other states.  It just wouldn’t work.”

By comparison, Illinois spends nearly $50 million advertising its tourism opportunities, Moore said.

“Our neighboring states are eating our lunch in tourism, because they’re actively pursuing it,” he said. 

The state helps tourists through 13 welcome centers mostly near borders. The centers are run by the Michigan Department of Transportation, and they work with local businesses to promote their region.

“First impressions are important,” said Vivian Haight, manager of the Menominee Welcome Center.  “If we give them everything they want, clean restrooms and good information, they’re going to come back.

“We have brochures and we give out maps.  We handle tourism information for the state,” she said.

John Collins assistant manager of the Marquette Welcome Center said, “We give the attractions in Marquette and mileages from here to where their destination is and we work with the locals to promote tourism.”

There’s also a unique look and feel to some centers.  For example, Marquette’s used to be a log home.

“People call it the most beautiful welcome center around,” Collins said.  “We’ve got a huge deck that overlooks Lake Superior and a rock formation across the street that’s 2 billion years old.  There’s a lot of old history in Marquette.”

That history, however, doesn’t let Marquette claim the oldest center.  That honor belongs to Menominee’s, which is not only the oldest in Michigan, but it’s also the oldest continuously operating welcome center in the nation.

Zimmerman said Michigan residents love to tour the state.

“We have a very loyal in-state market,” he said.  “We’re No. 4 in the country at keeping our tourists in state.  The great opportunity is really coming from out of state.  We need to be advertising in markets where there’s more prosperity.

“I’m not a native son of Michigan,” he said. “But Michigan has a national quality product for visitors.  In the same ways that a lot of other states are competing for visitors--we can compete with those states for visitors from around the country.”

The Travel Michigan Web site, www.michigan.org/travel, recorded 8 million visits in 2005, up 53 percent from 2004.