Muskegon County CVB reports rising tourism, flags festival and waterfront infrastructure needs

Muskegon County Community Development Director Bob Lukens briefed the county Opportunity Development and Strategic Planning Committee on Jan. 16 on the Convention and Visitor Bureau’s year‑in‑review, saying visitation and hotel development increased in fiscal 2024 while festival and waterfront infrastructure needs could limit future growth.

Lukens said the CVB printed 45,000 copies of a new visitor guide distributed across the Midwest — including Toledo, Cleveland and the Chicago–Milwaukee corridor — and made the guide available online with QR codes linking to local tourism pages. He told commissioners the bureau recorded about 2,300,000 visitors who made roughly 20,800,000 visits in FY 2024 and that visitors living more than 100 miles away generated about 4,600,000 visits, a group the CVB targets because they are likelier to stay overnight.

"We prepped 45,000 copies of this. It's distributed throughout really the Midwest," Lukens said. He also highlighted lodging and development activity, listing new and upcoming properties: Lumberman's Vault and Liquid Assets in downtown, Hansen Hill Waterfront Grill near White Lake,…