Governor’s Award for Innovative Tourism Collaboration

Accepting the Governor’s Award for Innovative Tourism Collaboration in Michigan was Mike Venturini President of Michigan Lake to Lake Bed and Breakfast Association and owner of Munro House B&B in Jonesville. The award honored the association’s nine member inns who participated with Pure Michigan and website developer InsideOut Solutions to combine forces in creating an upgraded tourism presence in Michigan.

It started with the creation of a cutting edge website that integrated photos, links, and user friendly maps. It continued with the implementation of a successful and well-followed Michigan bed and breakfast blog, and a well used social media platform that contains regular postings to facebook and twitter.  e-marketing efforts through state tourism partner Pure Michigan gave us access to over 100,000 additional visitors who participate in their e-mail advertising campaign. An avalanche of publicity and goodwill was generated when 33 member inns participated in a national “B&Bs for Vets” campaign in November.

 

Our Association is all about Michigan says Keith Charak of Sherwood Forest B&B in Douglas. “Our bed and breakfasts stretch across this state, from the Keewenaw Peninsula on Lake Superior to Algonac on Lake St. Clair, from Oscoda on Lake Huron to Douglas and Saugatuck on Lake Michigan. We are the heart and soul of Michigan and always ready to open our doors to show people the warmth and hospitality theyʼd expect when they come for a visit.”

When you think about it, what is Michigan Lake to Lake Bed and Breakfast Association (L2L) but a collaboration of small businesses that pool resources, including money, time, and talent, to obtain a level of tourism marketing and promotion (plus education and influence) that is not realistically possible for us to achieve on our own?

What do members get out of the partnership in an ordinary year? Barb Phillips of Dewey Lake Manor in Brooklyn, said “Dewey Lake joined L2L when we first opened 20 years ago — didnʼt know much about it (or anything for that matter) but because it was a collaboration of the stateʼs B&Bs, I felt it gave us credibility and that we could learn lots from others, which we have. And the e-specials are an example of something that would be too expensive to do on our own but, working as a group we can promote all of us.”

Janice Duerr of the State Street Inn of Harbor Beach, said: “For the past ten years, we have looked to Michigan Lake to Lake Bed & Breakfast Association for guidance in many areas of innkeeping and operating a bed and breakfast, from marketing strategies, understanding state laws and new legislation that affects innkeepers and state tourism, to best business practices, proper business insurance and so many other topics.”

In 2010, we all pulled together in an extraordinary way on several fronts. These four cooperative initiatives are the basis on which we staked our bid to be recognized for contributing an “Innovative Tourism Collaboration” that benefits many organizations around the state and, most of all, the traveling public.

Mike Venturini
Jonesville Michigan Bed and Breakfast Innkeeper
“Life is good in Jonesville”

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