Who We Are
The role of the Council is to encourage involvement of other leaders, both public and private, to facilitate change.
Mandate
The Council is charged by its respective organizations to action tourism infrastructure development as a key component of regional economic growth. The goal is to increase tourism spending in the region from $5 billion to $8 billion a year by influencing changes in the infrastructure that will make Detroit a more attractive destination.
Objectives
Foster, measurable improvement in regional tourism product development
The Council brings together public and private sector executives to identify and develop innovative tourism policies to positively impact regional transportation, public safety & security, visual appeal, attraction development, programming, and visitor amenities. It will propose strategies for building attraction inventory and rapid solution of the most egregious visitor complaints.
Measure success; upgrade strategy
An annual tourism consumer research survey to track progress against the Tourism Vision an a five and ten year continuum has been developed by Ernst & Young. The survey findings will anchor an annual report to the sponsoring organizations on the region’s tourism improvement and will be made available for public perusal and civic discussion.
Raise community awareness of far-reaching economic and social importance of tourism
Tourism’s economic impacts are both immediate and long-term. Impacts extend beyond immediate experience and spending of visitors, to “take-away” judgments and stereotyping of destinations that can have negative and or positive effects on staff recruitment; investment; public and private grants, etc.
The Council, through its reporting and strategic information initiatives, will educate the region about tourism and local negative and positive impacts, in order to increase community commitment to change and improvement.
STRATEGIES
- Continue Development of Tourism Destination Districts. TEDC will work with each district committee to continually supply fresh information for the Bureau's websites, podcasts and other outreach efforts, as well as help the Bureau create travel itinearies, packages and other programs that enable visitors to tap into the rich and eclectic scenes available in metro Detroit.
- Product Development Research/Strategy. I early 2007, the Product Development Tourism Action Group (TAG) will recieve the final report on the TEDC's product development research process. It will develop specific new product scenarios and share those with regional stakeholders to determine which idea has the greatest potential for success.
- Freeway Maintenance. Together with MDOT and other regional transportation experts, TEDC will form a Freeway Maintenance Taskforce to conduct a 90-day study on the causes of metro Detroit freeway litter problems, as well as benchmark other region's strategies. It will develop recommendations for addressing the problem.
- Building the Destination. TEDC will once again co-produce with the Detroit 300 Conservancy the 4th Fridays with Ford downtown festival series, exanding to five monthly events from May through September and integrating satellite events and transportation. TEDC will expand TOUR:Detroit package of local tours and partner with regional workforce development agencies to provide the Ambassador Hospitality Training program.
Tourism Action Groups
The TEDC uses small tourism action groups (TAGs) and other work groups to focus on specific items within the six strategies of the vision. These key work groups include:
Tourism Economic Development Council
211 West Fort Street
Suite 1000
Detroit,
- Image Development : Patricia Mooradian, The Henry Ford
- Product Development: Doug Rothwell, Detroit Renaissance
- Safety & Security: Christopher Hogan, DaimlerChrysler Corporation
- Freeway Maintenance Taskforce: Tony Kratofil, Michigan Department of Transportation, Metro Detroit Region
