Mar. 20--Southeastern Michigan leaders will announce an ambitious plan today to draw millions more visitors to the region by cleaning up major freeways and downtown Detroit, reversing the city's image as an unsafe place and expanding public transit. 

The plan also encourages the building of new attractions like a Great Lakes aquarium on the Detroit River, a new Motown Museum or a gondola lift linking Detroit and Windsor. Also envisioned are the expansion of Cobo Hall, the building of a new conference center in Troy and the resurrection of auto plant tours. 

The 10-year strategy devised by the Detroit Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau could increase visitor spending in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties by an estimated $3 billion a year and help create 31,000 more jobs. 

To execute the plan, the bureau has hired Bill Connellan as senior vice president in charge of tourism development. 

The bureau has enlisted top business, civic and political leaders from Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties for the first time to form a council to develop a tourism strategy. 

"Our message is `We can do this,' " said Steve Hamp, president of Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village and a member of the bureau's board of directors. "We have enough critical mass that we are not blowing smoke." 

The bureau will announce the strategy and introduce the council during a 10 a.m. briefing at the Detroit Athletic Club for about 150 civic and business leaders. 

Jim Nicholson, president and chief executive officer of PVS Chemicals Inc. of Detroit, is to head the council. 

Other members are Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick; Wayne County Executive Ed McNamara; Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson; John Hertel, chairman of the Macomb County Commission; Detroit Regional Chamber President Dick Blouse; Detroit Renaissance President Paul Hillegonds; Detroit Zoo Director Ron Kagan; Doug Rothwell, president of the Michigan Economic Development Corp.; Larry Alexander, the bureau's president and chief executive officer, and Paul Tait, executive director of the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments. 

Connellan, a former vice provost at Oakland University, served on the bureau's board for 22 years and was a member of the host committee for the 1982 Super Bowl at the Pontiac Silverdome. 

The 28-page strategy sets sweeping goals to make southeastern Michigan a premier travel destination but contains few details and offers no funding for such things as highway or downtown cleanup, improving public safety or building new attractions. 

The bureau has budgeted $1 million to pay for drawing up the plan and finance the project's initial operating costs, including Connellan's salary and consultant Ernst & Young's annual assessments of the strategy for the next four years, Connellan said. 

"There is a hope that there will be a redirection of some public sector budgets once the vision takes shape and that the private sector will step up with in-kind support," bureau spokeswoman Renee Monforton said Tuesday. 

The three-county region currently attracts about 17 million visitors each year, mostly from within a five-hour drive of Detroit. The convention, business and leisure visitors spend about $5 billion. 

Bureau officials devised the plan over two years with Ernst & Young tourism consultants and a committee of local hospitality and business executives. 

The strategy is based on 1,500 interviews with convention delegates, leisure visitors and meeting planners, and comparisons of southeast Michigan's tourism economy with those in Cleveland, St. Louis, Chicago, San Francisco and Frankfurt, Germany. Frankfurt was chosen because, like Detroit, it is host to an international auto show. 

The plan's six priorities are: 

--Reducing crime. 

--Improving the area's appearance. 

--Creating better public transit. 

--Marketing the region as a distinct destination. 

--Regional collaboration. 

--Developing new attractions. 

The new attractions would help create more nightlife for visitors in a region where many places usually shut down early, bureau president Alexander said. 

The bureau said it hopes to capitalize on Detroit's three casinos, Comerica Park and Detroit Metro Airport's midfield terminal, as well as the August debut of Ford Field and other major events that are coming to the region. The headline events include the 2004 Ryder Cup at Oakland Hills Country Club and the 2006 NFL Super Bowl at Ford Field. 

The Ryder Cup attracts an international TV audience of 127 million viewers; the Super Bowl is seen by about 800 million viewers. 

The bureau and city are expected to bid April 12 for the 2004 Democratic National Convention and the Tigers have asked to host the 2005 Major League Baseball All-Star Game at Comerica. 

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