Episode 696: Behind the Scenes at the Pure Michigan Governor's Conference on Tourism

This week's show comes direct from the Pure Michigan Governor's Conference on Tourism, which we were lucky to attend this past week. We loved reconnecting with friends in the industry, while learning all about what is new across Michigan.

We kick off with the the Pure Michigan queeen herself, Kelly Wolgamott. She's the Vice President of our tourism arm here in Michigan, which is run by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. Kelly was named VP just last year, and has been making her mark every since. She shares some of the trends she sees unfolding this summer season across Michigan.

Next, we have the very no-nonsense Jess Loding on to talk about the super cool non-profit organization Michigan Cares for Tourism.  Each year this group tackles a renovation or restoration project somewhere in Michigan, and have had over 5500 volunteers from the tourism industry join them on their projects over the years. This September, they'll be doing work at Tawas State Park, and Behind the Mitten will be in attendance. We can't wait. 


Julie Pingston from Choose Lansing then joins us to talk about accesible travel, and some of the projects they've worked on in the greater Lansing area. One thing we learn: until you have experienced compromised travel, you kind of have no idea how important inclusivity in travel is. 

Finally, we ge to meet one of the keynote speakers at the conference, Matt Rodbod from Taste Magazine. It's always interesting to get an "outsiders" perspecitve of Michigan, and that is just what Matt provides. We loved learning what a national perspective of Michigan looks like, and it's not exactly what we thought.