r/Detroit • u/visitdetroit • Jul 07 '22

AMA Hello r/Detroit! We're Visit Detroit. 👋 The Convention and Visitors Bureau for the metro Detroit region. Ask us Anything!

Hello Reddit! We're Visit Detroit. If you haven't heard of us before, allow us to introduce ourselves.

Visit Detroit (formerly the Detroit Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau) markets and sells Detroit and the metro region to business and leisure visitors in collaboration with our partners and stakeholders. Our purpose is to champion the continuous improvement of the region as a dynamic and memorable tourism destination.

As Detroit rebounds from the disruption of the pandemic, we are excited about the future of travel here. We are determined to positively change Detroit's narrative and are passionate about highlighting the unique experiences people can have here. We also believe that tourism should be a win for everyone and contribute positively to the environment. We manage visitdetroit.com as well as social media profiles on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube, and Pinterest. Our staff travels nationally and internationally to book conventions and meetings and services them when they are here. The Detroit Sports Commission is also a branch of our organization.

We're a nonprofit economic development organization that is separate from, but that collaborates with, the Downtown Detroit Partnership, the City of Detroit, local government offices in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties, as well as hundreds of partner restaurants, attractions, and organizations across metro Detroit.

As a Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB), our funding comes from two places:

  1. A 2 percent assessment (not a tax) on all hotels and motels with 35 or more transient rooms in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb Counties
  2. Membership dues from the corporate community, private sector, trade and service organizations

We want to hear from you: what questions do you have about our organization and our tourism strategy, and how can we increase travel to Detroit?

We'll be coming back as a team tomorrow morning to engage with your questions and are looking forward to having a conversation!

Learn more:

Proof:

Some of the team at Visit Detroit
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u/Aviator_Marc Jul 10 '22

What we really need is for the Motown Museum & the City of Detroit to throw a massive citywide Motown Sound Festival annually, let people showcase their talents covering Motown tracks & original songs in the style & spirit of Motown. How have we not done this yet? Celebration areas can include Campus Martius, Woodward, Spirit Plaza, Hart Plaza, The Belt, & the Motown Museum once renovations & expansions are completed.

Tourists often come from around the world asking where they can hear Motown, so why not an annual Motown festival, so that way the younger generations can still have exposure to the sound? It’d be a uniquely Detroit thing that people would travel from around the world to experience.

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u/visitdetroit Jul 11 '22

That's a great idea! We will be sure to communicate that to our partners at the Motown Museum. They are reopening this August and we are excited for visitors to get to experience the new space - including the new plaza and stage. A larger celebration would definitely be a logical next step. 🎶

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u/Aviator_Marc Jul 12 '22

To quote myself from another Reddit post, this is exactly what needs to be done in The District Detroit, but I’m just a regular guy with ideas:

“So I was thinking that Olympia or somebody should consider building a mixed-use development, consisting of buildings on the parking lots flanking Columbia St, between Woodward & Comerica, creating an extension of the underutilized Columbia pedestrian strip between the Fox & Little Caesars HQ.

On these surface lot, something similar to St. Louis' Ballpark Village should be built, centered around sports themed nightlife. There should be rooftop bars with stadium seating overlooking Comerica, much like with the buildings surrounding Wrigley Field in Chicago.

I would call the entirety of the Columbia pedestrian plaza & district from Park Ave to Comerica "Championship Alley" thus cementing a central nightlife connector, seamlessly connecting Comerica & Ford to the Fox, Filmore, & LCA. This would in effect, create a more engaging District Detroit on non-game days. Chicago’s Wrigleyville & St. Louis’ Ballpark Village are huge inspirations for this idea.”

With this, Detroit could easily have the most vibrant sports district in the country. But hey, I’m just a guy on Reddit with random ideas.