The state of Michigan’s official travel and tourism website, michigan.org, is once again the most visited state tourism website in the country. The site attracted more visits than any other state tourism website for the sixth year in a row, according to the independent online measurement company Experian Hitwise.

With nearly 1 million more visits than the number two state tourism website, Florida, michigan.org received 7.1 percent of the overall market share of visits to state tourism sites.

“The michigan.org website continues to be an incredibly popular and effective site to showcase Michigan’s terrific destinations and highlight the award-winning Pure Michigan campaign nationwide,” said George Zimmermann, Vice President of Travel Michigan, part of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. “With a new design and consumer friendly features such as a trip planner tool and Trip Advisor property ratings, michigan.org helps to turn our website traffic into tourism dollars here in Michigan.”

In 2012, michigan.org recorded more than 8.8 million web visits, with consumers using the site an average of 24,000 times per day. In addition, click-throughs from the site to other Michigan tourism industry sites totaled an average of 14,000 per day and 5.3 million for the year.

Last fall, Travel Michigan launched a newly designed michigan.org with features including an interactive map, Hot Spots page and a trip planner tool. The new site utilizes responsive web design, making michigan.org one of the first state tourism websites to take advantage of this mobile-friendly technology.

Also new, Trip Advisor ratings are now available on michigan.org for many of the 15,000 Michigan tourism attractions, events, hotels, resorts on the site.

Pure Michigan’s social media efforts have also continued to lead the industry. Think Social Media recently ranked Pure Michigan’s social media presence the best in the United States among all destination marketing organizations (DMO). This is the ninth time since 2009 that Michigan has been ranked #1 in this quarterly report and it has been ranked either #1 or #2 for 14 of the past 15 quarters – the highest rankings of any state. The U.S. Travel Association awarded Michigan a 2012 Mercury Award for “Best Use of Social Media” among all state DMO’s in the nation.

Pure Michigan also holds the number one state tourism spot on Instagram with more than 15,000 followers and more than 115,000 photos using the #PureMichigan hashtag since its launch in July. Pure Michigan continues have an active and growing presence on Google+, Twitter and Pinterest as well.

Travel Michigan, part of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, markets the state’s tourism industry and provides valuable visitor information services. For Michigan travel news and updates, go to michigan.org.

The Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) serves as the state's marketing arm and lead agency for business, talent and jobs, with a focus on helping grow Michigan's economy. For more on the MEDC and its initiatives, visit: MichiganAdvantage.org.

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