LANSING ? Michigan Travel web site, Michigan.Org, over the weekend broke the single user record set during 2006, with more than 10 million sessions served. The average daily visit rate is 35,375, up from 28,460 set a year ago.

Michigan.Org also dominated the summer season

(April through September), taking the title as the No. 1 State Tourism Web

site, according to Hitwise United States, an international

company which tracks traffic to major web sites.

“The Pure Michigan campaign has been a tremendous creative force to

attract visitors to michigan.org, where we provide information on more than

11,000 Michigan attractions, events, hotels, resorts, restaurants and other

tourism-related businesses,” said George Zimmermann, vice president ofCorporation. “At this time of year michigan.org visitors are logging on to

our site for fall color driving tours, Halloween events, where to pick

fresh apples and visit cider mills, and to take advantage of special deals

for weekend getaways.”

Travel Michigan research shows that approximately two-thirds of all consumers who use michigan.org for tourism information travel to and within Michigan.

Last month new fall Pure Michigan television and radio commercials were

launched in Chicago as well as in many Michigan markets including Detroit,

Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Flint, Saginaw, Bay City and Lansing. Michigan

native and actor/comedian Tim Allen is the voice of the Pure Michigan radio

and television commercials. All ads carry the tag line: Pure Michigan –

Your trip begins at michigan.org.

In August, the Travel Industry Association of America 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.

Visitors spend $17.5 billion annually traveling in Michigan, generating

$971 million in state taxes, and accounting for 193,000 jobs statewide,

making tourism a vital component of Michigan’s economy.

Travel Michigan, a division of the Michigan Economic Development

Corporation, is the State of Michigan’s official agency for the promotion

of tourism.

For more information, click on Michigan.Org

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