In terms of geographic borders, there is little overlap between Traverse City and Leelanau County. But when it comes to northern Michigan’s brand as a tourism destination, the two are deeply intertwined – and arguably becoming more so by the year.

Local tourism leaders see the relationship as a rising-tide-lifts-all-boats situation, arguing that visitors flocking to the region means traffic, dollars, jobs and increasing year-round economic viability for the entire region. Meanwhile, Leland Township Supervisor Susan Och senses a growing feeling among Leelanau residents that the county is “bearing the brunt for regional tourism” without getting either a seat at the table for local tourism planning, or a fair share of the profits.

Leelanau’s stock as a tourism destination has been on the rise since Good Morning America dubbed Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore the “Most Beautiful Place in America” back in 2011. The park’s numbers have increased substantially since then.

And it’s not just Sleeping Bear: In 2018, Time Money ranked Glen Arbor fourth on its list of 20 best affordable places to visit. In December 2022, when Conde Nast Traveler touted northern Michigan as one of its “23 best places to go in 2023,” Leelanau favorites made the list. And just last week, the New York Times encouraged readers to spend “36 hours in Traverse City,” burning much of that time on Leelanau destinations.

Between the press coverage and a recent string of milder-than-typical winters, Och says small Leelanau towns like Leland have seen a shift in their tourism traffic patterns. It used to be that Leelanau towns would do bustling summertime business but then mostly go into hibernation during the winter. Now, those towns are becoming year-round destinations, and it’s causing some growing pains. Earlier this year, Och spoke to the Leelanau Ticker about the growing demand for year-round public restrooms in Leland – a change that would require replacing or retrofitting the existing seasonal bathrooms at the Leland Harbor.

Och worries all the growth is forcing Leelanau’s small towns and their taxpaying residents into unfairly “bearing the brunt for regional tourism.” In the past few years, she’s clocked an increase in anti-tourism sentiment from her constituents. One recent example? A post on the Overheard in Leelanau Facebook community page, “where someone, maybe a bot, asks where everyone’s favorite beaches [in Leelanau County].”

“Most of the people [in the comments to that post] are complaining that this is a person looking to write an article promoting our area, and they are not happy about it,” Och says.

Part of the challenge, Och notes, is that while Leelanau small towns are popular destinations, they don’t have many hotels. Plenty of visitors to the county stay in nearby short-term rentals, but many book hotel rooms in Traverse City and then plot day trips out to Leelanau towns.

“[There’s a] strain that comes from being a day destination and having to provide parking, trash removal, public restrooms, public safety, and so forth for day trippers who are attracted to this area by all of the hype,” Och says. “We can’t prove where these people are staying, but it does seem like Leelanau County destinations are being used to fill Traverse City hotel rooms.”

The situation has left Och wondering: “When have we promoted this area enough?”

For his part, Trevor Tkach – president and CEO of Traverse City Tourism (TCT) – sees Leelanau County as both an important asset and an important partner in efforts to promote northern Michigan.

“The average consumer doesn’t see borders,” Tkach says. “When you’re talking about coming to Traverse City from downstate or out of state, you're not thinking just of Traverse City. You’re thinking more about the experience of coming north, and one of the great things about Traverse City is that it’s a wonderful hub-and-spoke experience. You’re going to have a nice centralized downtown space, but you’re also going to have outlying areas where you can go and explore a lot of really cool experiences. And Leelanau never disappoints on that front.”

Tkach also says it’s not easy to “turn on and off the faucet” of marketing based on which areas believe they have the infrastructure to manage the flow of visitors and which don't.

“You do your best job of telling stories about the region and trying to fit to what the market will bear, but it’s hard to match the marketing strategy of the entire region to the specific needs of each smaller community,” he explains. “Especially when, if desired visitor numbers aren’t met, the question typically becomes ‘Why aren’t you marketing more?’ We’re getting that feedback this year more than ever, because we just went through a very, very challenging winter.”

What Leelanau County could do, Tkach says, is get more involved with TCT as it plots its future tourism marketing. Right now, Leelanau is not a part of TCT’s assessment district, which means that most of the hotels that fund TCT’s existence – and that therefore have a voice – are not in Leelanau County. TCT is largely governed by the lodging properties in Grand Traverse County, though Benzie County also joined the organization’s fold in 2020.

“They could establish a district,” Tkach said of Leelanau’s lodging properties. “I think if they were more organized in that way, we'd love to see that and I think we could provide even more support.”

As Tkach points out, Leelanau currently has a single assessment district, formed by The Homestead – itself the county’s biggest resort hotel.

“Comparatively, in Grand Traverse County and Benzie County, you have multiple fully established assessment districts which then feed into TCT,” he says. Those partnerships mean pooled financial resources across the districts, as well as a shared “commitment from those who work in the travel and tourism space to come together and work together to solve issues or challenges.”

“So perhaps Leelanau County, or even just Leland, could consider establishing an assessment district and partnering up with TCT,” Tkach says. “I know that we would welcome that, and I think then we could address some of these issues around infrastructure. Right now, in Benzie County, we're putting money into the Frankfort bathrooms down by the beach. That’s been a little bit of a challenge for them to figure out, but at the end of the day, there's going to be a new resource in that community, partly because the tourism group there is partnered with us.”

A longer version of this story appears in the June issue of the Traverse City Business News.