Displaying items tagged: Experience Grand Rapids

Corporations and associations might not yet be hosting in-person events at the scale they once did, but the state’s top meeting and convention venues are optimistic about their recovery in the coming two years.

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

Regional business and economic development leaders recently announced a list of 12 “transformational” projects that could reshape Kent County’s ability to attract visitors, new residents and employers.

Travel Michigan will once again mount full Pure Michigan tourism campaigns starting for the coming winter travel season and extending into 2022 for the traditional busy summertime.

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.

The Pure Michigan campaign that for 15 years has worked to brand and change perceptions of Michigan will focus on in-state and regional travelers this summer as opposed to a nationwide campaign.

GRAND RAPIDS — After an economically grim 2020, Grand Rapids event and entertainment officials say they’re optimistic about pent-up demand, COVID-19 vaccines and a new standard of hybrid in-person and virtual programs.

The tourism and hospitality sectors took a major hit in 2020 but are expected to slowly rebound in 2021 with positive news about the COVID-19 vaccine. Experience Grand Rapids Executive Director Doug Small is among industry leaders predicting it will take longer than a year for tourism to return to pre-pandemic levels, but a few larger projects on the horizon could provide Grand Rapids with some momentum in the new year. Hotels hit historically low occupancy rates in 2020, and Kent County hit a low in April with an 18 percent average occupancy rate. Occupancy levels are expected to increase in 2021, but are still expected to fall short of pre-pandemic levels.

GRAND RAPIDS — A downtown Grand Rapids amphitheater appears to be the most plausible of the major downtown development projects now being pursued by Grand Action.

GRAND RAPIDS — The business group that pushed several major developments over the past 25 years is now focused on a downtown convention center expansion, an amphitheater and a professional soccer stadium.

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.

GRAND RAPIDS — Kent County’s hotel occupancy has started to rebound since the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic, but a major downtown Grand Rapids hotel operator anticipates only being able to call back half of the 1,200 employees it furloughed in April.

GRAND RAPIDS — Downtown Grand Rapids Inc. is reallocating $50,000 it initially budgeted for ArtPrize 2020 toward a new event tentatively planned for September. 

GRAND RAPIDS — The West Michigan Sports Commission took measures to create a safer work environment at its office, which was newly opened in November of last year before the springtime COVID-19 pandemic sent staff home to work remotely.

  GRAND RAPIDS — In partnering on a $25 million small business relief fund, Kent County and the Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce want to tap a number of community and entrepreneurial support organizations to get the word out to companies and provide volunteers to vet grant applicants. 

GRAND RAPIDS — The Grand Rapids-Kent County Convention/Arena Authority is hitting pause on a task force that is considering the feasibility of building a new convention center hotel and adding a large-scale amphitheater in the city’s downtown. 

A coalition of West Michigan business, community and governmental organizations has formed to provide resources to business owners and employees facing confusion amid new restrictions to control the outbreak of the coronavirus. 

A lack of state funding for the popular Pure Michigan campaign that promotes the state as a travel destination complicates plans for tourism promoters now preparing for the 2020 summer season.

Oswaldo Cordova and Evangelina Abundis opened El Globo Restaurant LLC 14 years ago.

HOLLAND — Last year, travelers from all 50 states and 47 countries stopped into the Holland Area Visitors Bureau while visiting the city. 

When doctors in Wisconsin wanted to put Bonnie Demos on a morphine pump for pain, she decided instead to move to Michigan and grow her own medicine.

GRAND RAPIDS — Nearly every guest who spends the night at a hotel room in downtown Grand Rapids sleeps on the same mattress. 

GRAND RAPIDS — The Grand Rapids-Kent County Convention/Arena Authority has hired a consultant to lead the process of weighing concepts for developing a full-service hotel to serve the downtown convention center. 

Hotel development in West Michigan remains on a torrid pace for 2019. Developers have plans to add more than 800 new rooms this year, with developments popping up in downtown Grand Rapids and in suburban areas surrounding the city. At the same time, although annual hotel occupancy dipped slightly for 2018, hotel revenue actually increased, a reflection of record room bookings.

GRAND RAPIDS –– New data on hotel rates across the Midwest offered some sobering analysis on the cost of a room in downtown Grand Rapids.

A thriving business climate and renewed interest in communities across West Michigan have sparked increased demand for event space throughout the region.

LANSING — Funding for arts and culture in Michigan received a $1 million bump for 2018. 

Cities with professional sports teams have an edge when trying to attract prospective visitors, but Grand Rapids continues to compete successfully without this added advantage.

While for-profit businesses get the bulk of the credit for West Michigan’s economic success, the role that local nonprofits play in the community’s health, wealth and wellbeing often goes under-reported and unrecognized. 

More than 12,000 amateur athletes and their traveling companions from around the Great Lakes will descend on greater Grand Rapids next summer when the region hosts the State Games of America.