LANSING, Mich., Sept. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Michigan's tourism web site, michigan.org, dominated the summer season, retaining the title as the #1 State Tourism Web Site. According to Hitwise United States -- hitwise.com, an international company which tracks traffic to major web sites, for the fifth consecutive month, michigan.org was the most trafficked state tourism web site in August with nearly 12 percent of the market share. Specifically, according to a Hitwise custom analysis of state tourism web traffic, michigan.org attracted 11.93 percent of all the traffic to the 50 state tourism web sites, followed by Virginia at 5.46 percent and Colorado at 4.83 percent. Arkansas and Pennsylvania rounded out the top 5 with 4.19 and 4.06 percent.

"Our new Pure Michigan marketing effort is driving a record number of potential visitors to michigan.org," said George Zimmermann, Vice President of Travel Michigan, a business unit of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. Michigan.org has been in the top three since the beginning of the year and rose to the top spot in April with the launch of the Pure Michigan advertising campaign.

The new campaign, a fresh strategy to promote tourism in Michigan, is intended to entice out-of-state travelers to one place that still feels magic, mythic, authentic, untamed, unspoiled, uncompromised, timeless and true. It's Pure Michigan. The campaign communicates to consumers what makes Michigan special and identifies experiences that you can't find anywhere else. A television ad spotlighting Michigan's world-class golf debuted in April, while the remainder of the campaign will launched in May. Ads promoting Michigan's spectacular fall color were unveiled earlier this week. Pure Michigan commercials can be viewed online at michigan.org/travelads.

Through August, michigan.org has logged nine million web visitors, up 24 percent over the same period in 2006. And michigan.org web visitors "clicked-through" to Michigan tourism industry websites 4.3 million times through August, up 12 percent over the same period last year.

"We view this as a clear and important signal that people are looking to Michigan for their leisure travel," commented Zimmermann. "We know from independent research that 65 percent of consumers who use michigan.org for tourism information, then travel to and within Michigan. More web traffic means more business at Michigan destinations."

Tourism is a vital industry in Michigan. Visitors spend $17.5 billion annually traveling in Michigan, generating $971 million in state taxes, and accounting for 193,000 jobs statewide.

Travel Michigan, a division of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, is the State of Michigan's official agency for the promotion of tourism. Travel Michigan markets the state's tourism industry and provides valuable visitor information services. For more information on traveling in the state of Michigan, visit michigan.org.

Contact: Kirsten Borgstrom, 517-335-1871

Joanna Wilbee Amis, 906-786-2412

CONTACT: Kirsten Borgstrom, +1-517-335-1871, or Joanna Wilbee Amis,
+1-906-786-2412, both of Travel Michigan

Web site: http://www.michigan.org/
http://www.hitwise.com/