With more tourists planning to make the trip here to Northern Michigan this summer, experts are expecting a big summer for businesses.
As we move further away from the pandemic, Traverse City Tourism says people are growing more comfortable with traveling and they’re expecting a lot of tourists to make their way to the Cherry Capital.
The President and CEO of Traverse City Tourism, Trevor Tkach, says despite some ongoing economic worries, they’re still expecting a big summer for tourism.
“People are a little bit concerned about their income and inflation. However, they continue to keep travel a priority in their budget,” Tkach claims.
Although tourism was still strong throughout the pandemic they say it was inconsistent, but now with more people comfortable with traveling, they say it could lead to a historic summer.
“I think we’re going to have probably the best summer ever, because we’ll see more consistency through the week. A lot of time, especially during the pandemic we would see peaks on the weekend,” Tkach explains.
The Store Manager of the new Lululemon, Meghan Conrad, says they’ve already noticed more people stopping in and expects more to come as we head deeper into summer.
“We are really looking forward to meeting a lot of new faces that maybe don’t have a lot of familiarity with the brand and we want to welcome them with open arms,” Conrad states.
Tkach says it’s not just fears from the pandemic dying down that has them expecting a big summer, he says it’s the growth and improvements the city has made since.
“Now there’s more opportunity then there was before the pandemic as well. There’s new hotel properties opening up, we’re seeing changing in the guard in restaurants and attractions,” Tkach says. “New and exciting ideas are coming forward and that’s what visitors want to see, something special and different.”
