Tourism in metropolitan Detroit
Tourism in metropolitan Detroit, Michigan is a significant factor for the region's culture and for its economy, comprising nine percent of the area's two million jobs. About 19 million people visit Metro Detroit spending an estimated 6 billion in 2019. In 2009, this number was about 15.9 million people, spending an estimated $4.8 billion. Detroit is one of the largest American cities and metropolitan regions to offer casino resort hotels. Leading multi-day events throughout Metro Detroit draw crowds of hundreds of thousands to over three million people. More than fifteen million people cross the highly traveled nexus of the Ambassador Bridge and the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel annually. Detroit is at the center of an emerging Great Lakes Megalopolis. An estimated 46 million people live within a 300-mile radius of Metro Detroit.
Detroit's unique culture, distinctive architecture, and revitalization and urban renewal efforts in the 21st century have given Detroit increased prominence as a tourist destination in recent years. The New York Times listed Detroit in its list of 52 Places to Go in 2017, while travel guide publisher Lonely Planet named Detroit the second-best city in the world to visit in 2018. In 2022, Detroit was featured in Time's The World's Greatest Places list.
Visit Detroit is the region's official destination marketing organization, promoting the Detroit metro region regionally, nationally and internationally as a convention, business meeting, and tourism destination. The organization, originally called the Detroit Convention and Businessman's League and later changed to the Detroit Metro Convention and Visitors Bureau, was founded on February 19, 1896 by Milton J. Carmichael and is the world's first convention and visitors bureau.
Market overview
The metropolitan region's tourism industry depends on drawing large crowds with quality attractions and entertainment in order to positively impact the local economy. As the world's traditional automotive center, the city hosts the annual North American International Auto Show in January, a multi-day event. Other major multi-day events that reflect the region's culture such as the Motown Winter Blast and the Windsor–Detroit International Freedom Festival, typically held the last week of June, can draw super sized-crowds of hundreds of thousands to over three million people. A 2007 poll, conducted by Selzer and Co., reported that about two-thirds of the millions of residents in the suburban area occasionally dine and attend cultural events or take in professional games in the city of Detroit. In 2006, the four-day Motown Winter Blast drew a cold weather crowd of about 1.2 million people to Campus Martius Park area downtown. Metro Detroit is one of thirteen U.S. cities with teams from four major sports.Besides its casino resort hotels, the region's leading attraction is The Henry Ford, America's largest indoor-outdoor museum complex, a National Historic Landmark museum entertainment complex with an IMAX theater next to the Automotive Hall of Fame in Dearborn. The Detroit Institute of Arts in the cultural center downtown is another leading attraction and national historic site. The Detroit Festival of the Arts in Midtown draws about 350,000 people. The Detroit Zoo in Royal Oak has an Arctic Ring of Wildlife exhibit with an underwater viewing tunnel that includes the largest polar bear exhibit in the U.S. Together, The Henry Ford, the Detroit Institute of Arts, and the Zoo attract about 2,500,000 visitors annually. Detroit is also home to the Ford Piquette Avenue Plant. Built in 1904 and now running as a museum, it is the oldest car factory building in the world open to the public and was the birthplace of the Ford Model T.
File:EdselFordHouse1.jpg|thumb|left|The historic Edsel and Eleanor Ford House on Lake St. Clair in Grosse Pointe is open to the public for guided tours.
An estimated one million spectators attended the 2009 Woodward Dream Cruise held annually in August. Another automotive attraction cataloging the history of the industry is the Chrysler Museum in Auburn Hills. The mansions of the auto barons that are open to the public for guided tours include the Dodge-Wilson estate Meadow Brook Hall in Rochester Hills, Edsel and Eleanor Ford House in Grosse Pointe, Henry Ford's Fair Lane Estate in Dearborn, and the Lawrence Fisher Mansion in Detroit. Cranbrook House and Gardens in Bloomfield Hills, the estate of publisher George Gough Booth, is also open to the public for guided tours. The New York Times listed Detroit among its 53 world travel destinations for 2008 and again in 2017.
File:Greektownnew2.jpg|thumb|Greektown Casino Hotel overlooks Greektown Historic District in Detroit
Detroit's Greektown is a busy entertainment district. The city is a center for the major casino resort hotels - MGM Grand Detroit, MotorCity Casino, Hollywood Casino, and Caesars Windsor just across the river in Canada - which support an active nightlife. The metropolitan region's potential to attract super-sized crowds should not be underestimated. Just across the river, Caesars Windsor attracts about six million visitors annually. Detroit is one of the largest American cities and metropolitan regions to offer casino resort hotels. The Detroit International Riverfront hosts an events including the Windsor-Detroit International Freedom Festival in late June with one of the nation's largest displays of fireworks and the Electronic Music Festival on Memorial Day weekend. More than fifteen million people cross the Ambassador Bridge and the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel annually. Detroit is at the center of an emerging Great Lakes Megalopolis. An estimated 46 million people live within a 300-mile radius of Metro Detroit. High-speed rail proposals between Chicago and Detroit and for the Quebec City – Windsor Corridor would further increase access to Metro Detroit. The U.S. Department of Transportation has awarded $244 M in grants for high-speed rail upgrades between Chicago and Detroit. The Quebec City – Windsor Corridor contains over 18 million people, with 51% of the Canadian population and three out of the four largest metropolitan areas in Canada, according to the 2001 Census.
Movie studios in the metro area help establish the state as a legitimate contender in the 12-month-a-year film business.
Motown Motion Picture Studios with will produce movies at the Pontiac Centerpoint Business Campus for a film industry expected to employ over 4,000 people in the metro area.
Cruise ships, hotels, and resorts
The Passenger Terminal and Dock of Detroit on Hart Plaza near the Renaissance Center receives cruise ships and tall ships. Cruise liners include vessels marketed by the Great Lakes Cruising Company: Yorktown, Grand Mariner, and Grand Caribe and has included Hapag-Lloyd's MS Hamburg operated by Plantours. The Great Lakes Cruising Coalition has attempted with limited success to support passenger ship cruises through a joint U.S-Canadian venture to Great Lakes ports and the St. Lawrence Seaway. Passenger cruise liners depart from and journey to ports throughout the Great Lakes including Chicago, Detroit, Mackinac Island, Toronto, and Montreal. William G. Milliken State Park and Harbor in downtown Detroit offers public docks for boaters.The city's hospitality industry, with thousands of hotel rooms, routinely hosts major conventions and sporting events. The Marriott corporation and Starwood Hotels have a significant presence in the region. In addition to its casino resort hotels, the area has many full-service hotels and resorts, including the historic flagship Westin Book Cadillac Hotel in Detroit's Washington Boulevard Historic District, restored in 2008, the historic Doubletree Guest Suites Fort Shelby Hotel downtown Detroit, restored in 2009, and the Detroit Marriott at the Renaissance Center on the waterfront which is one of the largest hotel conference facilities in the U.S. The centrally located Westin Southfield Detroit Hotel contains one of the region's major conference centers and Westin operates a hotel and conference center inside the Detroit Metropolitan Airport. Downtown Detroit has about 5,000 hotel rooms, with 4,000 in walking distance of the convention and exhibit facility TCF Center. The suburb of Novi has about 5,300 hotels rooms within a radius and the suburb of Pontiac has about 5,800 within a radius.
Historic Inns and boutique hotels represent a popular hospitality investment. The city's Midtown area includes restored Victorian bed and breakfasts such as the Inn on Ferry Street in the East Ferry Avenue Historic District adjacent to the cultural center near the Detroit Institute of Arts and the Inn at 97 Winder in Detroit's Brush Park Historic District near Comerica Park and Ford Field. Some notable historic Inns include The Dearborn Inn, a Marriott Hotel, near The Henry Ford, the Inn at St. John's golf resort in Plymouth, and Roberts Riverwalk Hotel Detroit. The Royal Park Hotel in Rochester, the Townsend Hotel in Birmingham, the Somerset Inn in Troy, the Athenium Suite Hotel in Greektown, and the Hotel St. Regis in the New Center are among the region's notable boutique hotels.
In 2003, General Motors completed a $500 million redevelopment of the Renaissance Center as its world headquarters. The east riverfront promenade development was planned at and additional $559 million, including $135 million from GM and $50 million from the Kresge Foundation. The International Riverfront is linked by the River Walk, a promenade along connecting the cruise ship dock on Hart Plaza to a series of parks, restaurants, retail shops, and other venues from the Marriott at the Renaissance Center to the Roberts Riverwalk Hotel on the historic Stroh's riverplace site. Compuware CEO Peter Karmanos played a role in the financing to reconstruct the city's historic restoration of Campus Martius Park which now hosts events such as the Motown Winter Blast in January attracting large crowds.
A nearly $300 million renovation and expansion project of Cobo Center convention and exhibit facility began July 2011 and is expected to be ready for the 2014 North American International Auto Show in January, with the remainder of the project scheduled to be completed by December 2014. The project will add meeting and exhibit space and glass walls to the exterior in order to provide views of the International Riverfront.