Tourism in Metropolitan Detroit - Market Overview

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.

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.

Detroit's Greektown is a busy entertainment district. The city is a center for the major casino resort hotels - MGM Grand Detroit, MotorCity Casino, Greektown 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 (480 km) 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 710-mile (1,140 km) 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 (2009) with 535,000 square feet (49,700 m2) will produce movies at the Pontiac Centerpoint Business Campus for a film industry expected to employ over 4,000 people in the metro area.