Bucking the Old Trend: Area Tourism Needs 'Action'
By Karen Gould

Traditional tourism is changing, and successful attractions that now lure travelers offer more than just looking at artifacts through glass cases. Whether it is called heritage tourism, cultural tourism, or geotourism, visitors want to experience a story, said Dr. William Anderson, director of the Michigan Department of History Arts and Libraries, speaking at the 27th Annual Historic Preservation Conference at Grand Hotel Friday, May 4.

"It's not just seeing those things, but it is giving visitors the opportunity to experience a story," he said, "and the potential is huge."

This was the first time the group of historians, travel experts, and preservationists has met on the Island, and approximately 250 people attended the conference, which was also offered free to Island residents. Chairing the program committee was Island summer resident Frank Pompa.

The influence of Disney has been powerful on tourism and we need to add fun and entertainment, said Dr. Anderson.

"Michigan needs to enhance the visitor's experience," he said, and some areas have begun the process, including communities around the country that are taping into their unique features to draw visitors to their areas.

The old way of tourism was walking around a museum and staring at the artifacts, he said. The new way is to add action. At a museum in Indianapolis, visitors can make a pie and feed livestock, he said. While watching a Revolutionary War movie in a Virginia museum, visitors feel the rumble of cannons in the theater.

In Michigan, visitors touring the Henry Ford River Rouge factory experience a blast of heat while viewing molten iron, and feel a mist of water on their face while watching auto parts being painted. They travel along a walkway 18 feet above the factory floor to watch trucks being assembled.

Communities, he said, can make a memorable and lasting experience for the visitor by telling compelling stories that make the visitor feel part of the attraction, both physically and emotionally.

In Branson, Missouri, one can visit the Titanic Museum, a twostory replica of the ship. Standing on deck, visitors feel the cold air and feel the temperature of the water by putting a hand in a container of water. As visitors board the vessel, they are given a boarding pass with a picture of someone who was on the ship, and at the end of the voyage, the visitor finds out if their character survived the sinking. Visitors also sit in a life raft and hear stories recorded by survivors of the Titanic.

"When we think about an engaging experience for visitors," Dr. Anderson said, "some of it is hands on, some of it is interactive, but it also can be an emotional experience, and that's an important element."

In Grand Rapids at the Gerald R. Ford Museum, visitors can sit in a replica of the President's cabinet room and assume the role of a 1975 cabinet member.

Visitors are given three problems and asked to offer advice on them. They include deciding if President Ford should pardon Richard Nixon, if the United States should send military forces into Cambodia to rescue captured sailors, and if the U.S. treasury should bail out financially troubled New York City. Visitors are given background information and then asked to voice an opinion as a cabinet member before being told how Mr. Ford actually acted in each situation.

The state has "almost unparalleled natural resources," said Dr. Anderson, and it has sites that are ranked among top national historic attractions, including the four major attractions at Mackinac State Historic Parks. In 2006, for a period of just five months, from May through October, the park saw 346,000 paid admissions. For the entire year in 2006, paid admissions at Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia amounted to 383,000. At the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, 366,000 paid admissions were counted in 2006.

For Michigan, tourism is an industry, he said. It generates more than $17 billion in revenue, supports 108,000 jobs, and represents $1.9 million in personal income.

To take advantage of tourist dollars, he said, Michigan communities need to be creative in promoting their unique features. In Galesburg, Illinois, town leaders got their congressman to designate the city as the National Railroad Hall of Fame because it has a history with the railroads dating to 1849.

To be effective at promoting a destination, Dr. Anderson said community leaders also need to think regionally and partner with nearby communities to provide a complete package for visitors. Leaders can do this by taking an inventory of their town's assets and then assess those in other communities that compliment them.

"People expect more from us than they have in the past," he said. "We need to create regional destinations."

North Carolina has created regional destinations based on craft heritage trails. Planners of the program require participants to meet specific criteria that fit with the craft and regional theme. Those requirements include requiring studios to be open at dependable times, galleries to display objects made in America with a focus on North Carolina, restaurants to feature dishes indigenous to the region, and inns to have historical architecture.

An example of an Upper Peninsula regional destination, "Echoes of the Edmund Fitzgerald" offers such an experience and takes advantage of Michigan's maritime heritage, said Dr. Anderson. It is a collaboration of areas that follows the ship's journey through towns along the Lake Superior shoreline. The driving tour begins at the iron ore docks and the Marquette Maritime Museum, includes a boat ride to view shipwrecks, stops to view artifacts from the freighter, and ends at the Soo Locks in Sault Ste. Marie.

"We have great cultural and heritage resources and they are undervalued," he said, "and we are not marketing that opportunity. It is a win-win situation when we create destinations where we all benefit from the economic value that we produce."