Heritage Park Creation Fund

On July 23rd, The Economist ran an article on Michigan Tourism that highlights the optimisim of the MEDC's Pure Michigan ad campagin. (http://www.economist.com/world/unitedstates/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14090306) The following two comments were posted in response to the article.  Our many fantastic tourist attractions need the cross promoting anchor of Heritage Park now more than ever.

I have just moved here from the UK and its a gorgeous place. You Michiganders do not know how good you have it. My kids have just had the best summer they have ever spent and it didn't cost an arm and a leg going to Portugal for bad food and sitting on a beach all day.

I have holidayed in the South of France, Italy, Greece, Spain and Portugal and believe me they have mosquitoes too. What they do not have is air conditioning.

Been to Marseille? How safe is that. Been mugged in Barcelona. Yep they all have problems. Stop talking yourself down Michigan people. You have a gorgeous state. The west side is family friendly, you have hot summers, cold, snowy winters, Petoskey, Harbor Springs, the UP, Grand Haven, 10,000 lakes. All you need is tax breaks for businesses to set up here. There is festival after festival. You can swim in the lakes, walk in the woods, camp on the many gorgeous camp sites.

It is also cheap to do these things here.

Try taking a summer vacation in the UK. For one thing it is very expensive and the weather is bad.

Tourism won't save Michigan but it will not harm its image in the world and could entice more business here.

For families you can't beat it.

Mosquitoes and spotty skiing aside (I mean, where can you go for an outdoors vacation without bugs and a guarantee of great snow always?), Michigan is a great place to vacation - so much so, that my spouse and I are returning, from California, for second year to vacation for a week in the Petoskey area. I like that it isn't overrun with tourists and I especially like all the water to play on. We will go skiing, jet skiing, hiking, biking, fishing, swimming, sailing - you name it. Trying to do that in California means finding out the park is closed, taking 5+ hours to drive to Tahoe, dealing with crowds, and yes, the same bugs