MSU Extension partners with Marine City and Marine City Chamber of Commerce a second time to capture visitor impressions
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EmailLearn more about this one-year pilot program that seeks to understand strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities via QR codes around the Marine City community.
In 2019, a team of five unannounced, first-time visitors explored the City of Marine City as part of Michigan State University Extension’s award-winning First Impressions Tourism (FIT) assessment program. This initial FIT assessment shared a wide range of results with the community that highlighted strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities around tourism and community development identified by fresh perspectives. Although nearly seven years have passed since Marine City’s initial FIT assessment, the results continue to generate discussions for the community and greater St. Clair County.
Like Marine City, many communities previously having participated in the FIT program often express interest in having our MSU Extension team return to conduct another assessment three to five years after their original. To balance the needs of past participant communities with the high statewide demand for first-time FIT assessments, I reflected on shared feedback from partners to create, develop, and launch an innovative “FIT 2.0” program to pilot with Marine City and the Marine City Chamber of Commerce. My hope is to extend the FIT 2.0 option to other previous host communities as a next step in the FIT journey once the initial year-long pilot is completed.
The FIT 2.0 pilot focuses on empowering communities to drive their own assessment action locally, with our MSU Extension tourism team convening partners seasonally to review data captured from the previous season and discuss future goals and plans. Through QR codes on signs strategically placed downtown and in local businesses by the Marine City Chamber of Commerce, visitors can access a new, public survey created by our MSU Extension team to capture their initial impressions and motivations for visiting.
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Tailored to Marine City’s tourism assets and economic landscape as a coastal community rich in maritime history, the survey also provides an opportunity for respondents to identify additional community assets and highlight memorable features that would encourage their return to the area. Ratings for a wide range of community attributes are incorporated into the survey as well, including cleanliness, customer service, directional signage, accommodations, restaurants, and safety/security.
Structured in this way, the FIT 2.0 pilot allows partners to capture a larger, brand-new set of impressions while aiding communities in better understanding visitor sentiments and perceptions of changes adopted in the years after their initial FIT participation.
MSU Extension and our partners with the City of Marine City and the Marine City Chamber of Commerce will conduct the FIT 2.0 pilot over the next year and look forward to sharing more information on the status of the initiative in the future. If you are interested in learning more about this project, please contact Marine City Chamber of Commerce.
Learn more about MSU Extension’s First Impressions Tourism assessment program by visiting our website.
