Visitors and locals are starting to venture into Traverse City once again.
Governor Gretchen Whitmer reopened restaurants and retail in northern Michigan this week, and local hotels are starting to fill up for Memorial Day Weekend.
For the Grand Traverse Resort and Spa, they said the response was almost immediate.
“When she was [announcing the reopening] during the conference she was giving, our phones just started to light up, we got over 150 calls in an hour, and they were coming when she was talking,” said resort general manager Matthew Bryan. “We are now averaging about 200 calls a day where before if we got 10. Huge difference!”
At Cambria Suites, they said their hotel is 50% full, a mark they haven’t hit in months.
“I feel great, the world is coming back, it appears,” said Cambria Suites operations manager Ron Robinson. “We received a lot of reservations for the weekend…it’s a big thing that people have been missing for two months now!”
Bryan says at the resort, guests are finally starting to feel more comfortable about making concrete summer plans to vacation up north.
“It’s through the whole summer it has been really it just opened up the door. People feel comfortable,” said Bryan. “Everybody’s coming up from downstate, and we’re just excited to take care of everybody and get back to work.”
The resort says 70% of its business comes from employees attending conferences in Traverse City area. Because many have been canceled due to the pandemic, this year, they’ll be focusing on leisure guests.
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