April 15--Is the Pure Michigan campaign reaching a saturation point in the Midwest?

Although the glistening ad campaign drew 2.3 million new visitors from the Great Lakes region last year, the "return on investment" -- how many visitor dollars you get versus how much you spend on the ads to attract them -- is falling.

The state took in $8.06 in visitor spending and taxes for every regional ad dollar spent in 2012 compared to $9.85 in 2011. The new data was part of a mostly positive report released Monday at the Pure Michigan Governor's Conference on Tourism at the Renaissance Center in Detroit.

The numbers represent a slight weakness in a campaign whose returns have been only up, up, up since the slogan was introduced in 2006.

"I just think we have tourism momentum, and that's a beautiful thing," George Zimmermann, vice president of Travel Michigan, said at the three-day tourism conference.

He pointed to strengths: A $13-million spring/summer national cable television advertising blitz will air Pure Michigan ads more than 5,000 times by the end of June. Michigan's hotel occupancy rate in 2012 was the highest since 2004, a good sign.

And when both regional and national visitors are included, Michigan last year had 3.8 million new out-of-state visitors who spent a record $1.1 billion, he said.

"What has Pure Michigan done since 2006? It's generated 4 billion dollars."

Return-on-investment was a key metric used by Gov. Rick Snyder in convincing the legislature two years ago to appropriate a $25 million annual budget for Pure Michigan.

The small decline in that metric for 2012 can be attributed to "a range of issues outside of the influence of our campaign or media buy," said Michelle Begnoche of Travel Michigan Monday. "For us, the number of actual trips to Michigan generated and how much those visitors are spending in the state remain the most important data points."

For its regional ad campaign last year, the state spent $5 million on ads, which attracted 2.3 million new visitors. In 2011, it spent just $3.8 million but attracted 2 million new visitors

And people do know the brand: 72% of people in the Great Lakes region and 39% of those nationwide are aware of Pure Michigan, travel research company Longwoods International data show.

The pristine slogan had a brush with ugly politics in January when State officials used Pure Michigan's logo in a full page "right to work" advertisement in the Wall Street Journal. That prompted an outcry and a cancellation of plans for further such ads.

A broader report on how Michigan tourism overall fared in 2012 (including leisure travel by state residents) will not be available until June, Zimmermann said. In 2011, total tourism spending in the state was $17.7 billion, up slightly from the previous year but still $1 billion down from 2006.

In 20111, leisure travelers from outside the state actually spent more money in Michigan than leisure travelers from inside the state.

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