Pure Michigan Is Nation's No. 1 State Travel Website For Seventh Straight Year

LANSING (WWJ) -- For the seventh year in a row, michigan.org was the most visited state tourism website in the country, according to the independent online measurement company Experian Hitwise.

According to Hitwise, michigan.org's market share of 6.12 percent of all the web traffic to state tourism websites was the best in the nation, with Virginia, Florida, Arkansas and Hawaii rounding out the top five.

Michigan's official travel and tourism website recorded more than 9 million web visits in 2013 – up from 8.8 million web visits in 2012.

"The michigan.org website has always been, and continues to be the flagship of the Pure Michigan campaign," said George Zimmermann, vice president of Travel Michigan, part of the Michigan Economic Development Corp. "For many visitors, michigan.org is one of their first introductions to the state. We have worked hard to make it a place with an abundance of information, terrific visuals and most importantly a helpful place to plan a Pure Michigan vacation."

In addition to the 9 million web visits, consumers used the site an average of nearly 25,000 times per day. Click-through rates from michigan.org to other Michigan tourism industry sites averaged nearly 13,000 clicks per day and 4.7 million clicks for the year.

In addition to the national and regional advertising campaigns, Pure Michigan's social media channels also drive traffic to the michigan.org site. The Pure Michigan Facebook page, with more than 550,000 fans, is one of the top 10 drivers of traffic to michigan.org. Pure Michigan's social media presence has been ranked as the best in the nation among all state destination marketing organizations by Think Social Media in 11 out of the last 17 quarters.

"Our social media efforts provide a terrific platform to reinforce our advertising campaign by directly engaging with fans and guiding them to michigan.org," Zimmermann said.

With more than 76,000 followers, Pure Michigan has the number one state tourism Instagram account, and is within the top states for followers on Twitter, Pinterest, Google+ and Facebook. Pure Michigan was also recently named one of the Top 10 Destinations to Follow on Twitter by SuccessfulMeetings.com.

For more on the MEDC and its initiatives, visit MichiganBusiness.org. For Michigan travel news, updates and information, visit michigan.org.