Displaying items tagged: Discover Kalamazoo

Visitors traveling to Kalamazoo to participate in sporting events spent $28.7 million last year, as sports tourism locally returned to pre-pandemic levels.

The city of Kalamazoo generated $15.4 million in economic impact from more than 40 different local, regional and national sporting events held in 2021, according to a new report. 

Hospitality executives see positive signs of leisure travel activity increasing across West Michigan, though corporate travel still lags pre-pandemic levels.

After serving as a college intern for the Northwoods League, Brian Colopy now owns two franchises in the collegiate summer baseball league.

West Michigan tourism officials are reporting upward trends in travel and hotel stays as COVID-19 restrictions lift, and leaders are optimistic about the local tourism economy for the rest of the summer.

West Michigan economic development organizations are in a transition period — much like the industry itself during the COVID-19 pandemic — as multiple agencies take on new leadership.

After ping-ponging around the globe in various professional roles, Jane Ghosh finally ended up back in Kalamazoo, where her new job involves promoting the city she calls home. In December, Ghosh was named the new president and CEO of Discover Kalamazoo, which promotes tourism to Kalamazoo County. With an economics degree from Harvard University, Ghosh has marketing experience with titans like Johnson & Johnson and Kellogg Company. She will apply that experience to help raise the profile of Kalamazoo in a time when dining, entertainment and many other forms of hospitality have slowed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

KALAMAZOO — Discover Kalamazoo has announced its new president and CEO on the heels of a transitional period for the organization.

Occupancy rates are slowly inching back up, but regional tourism leaders say it will take years for hotels to make up for lost profits caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

A nearly year-long federal court case between two Kalamazoo-area economic development organizations over the use various iterations of “269” in publications and marketing materials has been dismissed.

Two Southwest Michigan economic development organizations have taken to federal court to argue over who gets the right to use the term “269.”