All one has to do to find the wow in Traverse City, Mich., is open their eyes, advises Mike Norton, who handles media relations for the Traverse City CVB.
“To watch the bay’s un-cannily clear waters change in an instant from transparent aquamarine to deepest cobalt…to see a scarlet tanager shoot like a living flame through the shadowy woods…to stand atop a 400-foot dune as the setting sun turns the lake into a glittering plain of beaten gold, this is a rare and splendid privilege,” Norton says.
The long, deep lakes and roller-coaster hills that give Traverse City its splendid natural setting were carved long ago by ancient glaciers. The most spectacular example of that ancient handiwork is at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. The grandeur of the 64-mile curve of beaches, coves, islands and hills along the west coast of the Leelanau Peninsula can be viewed from overlooks along the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive.
And besides all the eye candy, there are many active diversions amid the natural beauty and lakeland topography.
“Fortunately, groups who are here for meetings can easily tap into our four-season outdoor recreation,” he says. “Whether it’s a tasting tour of our wine country, an excursion to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, a meet and ski conference at Shanty Creek Resort, or charter fishing in Grand Traverse Bay, there’s plenty to do in all seasons,” Norton says.
The busiest time, says Jack Schripsema, vice president of sales and marketing for the Traverse City CVB, is May through mid-October. Then snow comes, and it brings a value season November through February.
“Word is getting out that summer is not the only time to arrive, he says. “About a third of our business is meetings and conventions, and most of them arrive in summertime. But shoulder seasons are growing. Fall is spectacular here when the leaves color, and winter is popular for several outdoor sports and team building groups can tap into.”
Another year-round choice is art and music. Over 50 galleries and studios line Traverse City streets, featuring everything from watercolors to Native American pottery and textiles. Local nightlife can mean an evening of cool jazz in a local restaurant or bistro, or a symphony concert at the renowned Interlochen Center for the Arts, favored by world-famous performers like Tony Bennett.
At least three seasons of the year, the area’s fairways offer big group assets. Known as Michigan’s “Golf Coast,” the Traverse City collection of courses wind through scenery where wildlife lives. It’s not unusual, Schripsema says, to see deer or wild turkey dash across the fairway, or a red fox sitting near the tee box.
“There is a misperception that northern Michigan is frozen most of the year,” Schripsema offers. “But people are realizing we have more moderate weather than they thought. In the past couple of years, we’ve had a pretty dramatic increase in business from outside Michigan, as we’ve extended our reach to groups from Chicago, Florida, Georgia and Missouri.”
Small to midsized meetings groups find residence at several meetings-equipped properties, like Grand Traverse Resort & Spa, Great Wolf Lodge and Homestead Resort in Glen Arbor.
But whenever they come, visitors often agree, Schripsema says, that the area offers “nourishment for the soul.”
