As the rubber rafts slid into Lansing’s Grand River in early February, vapor rose above the river. The scene launched the maiden voyage of
Green Planet Extreme Adventure Tours, a new company in Okemos, and appealed to the 13 hardy/crazy souls braving a 10-degree wind chill to raft their way down the river to Grand Ledge.
The growing adventure travel industry is seen as a way to help Michigan diversify its economy and keep more young talent. And it's catching on in the Capital region and across Michigan.
“We’re trying to keep those people in Michigan,” says State Representative
Ed Clemente (D-Lincoln Park), chair of the Michigan House Committee on the
New Economy and Quality of Life, noting that the extreme sports crowd tends to be younger and highly educated. “I’m trying to show a direct link,” he says.
Jim Seitz, one of the cold-weather rafters, thinks Clemente is on the right track.
“It was definitely a worthwhile experience,” he says. Included in the group were members of a photographic club. Flocks of herons and a pair of bald eagles rewarded the group for their icy trek.
Economic ImpactLansing’s
Hawk Island Triathlon, scheduled for June 6, is another good example of the adventure travel trend.
Organized by the
South Lansing Community Development Association, the Hawk-I-Tri has been around for four years. Attendance has grown from 250 its first year to a projected 800 this year, which will top out the parking facilities at Ingham County’s Hawk Island Park. Most of those 800 will bring family and/or friends.
Lansing Councilwoman Kathie Dunbar, the event's director, says
Causeway Bay, the event’s official hotel, sold out of its reserved 23-room-block last year, and rooms were booked at seven other hotels and area campgrounds. Racers came from 12 states and Canada.
Hospitality is not the only category seeing benefits.
Spin Street Bicycles in
Old Town now carries specialized triathlon bikes.
ZZ Underwater World now carries lightweight wetsuits recommended for beginning tri-athletes.
Playmakers, the area’s popular running store, has reserved 50 slots for the upcoming race and is hosting specific training programs targeting triathletes.
“People said developing a triathlon would be recession-proof,” Dunbar recalls. Still, she and her helpers were relieved to see the event nearly quadruple in size. Last year it cleared $35,000.
Extreme Options
The triathlon gets marketing help from
The Greater Lansing Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB).
“Every year we have five million visitors in the Tri-County region,” says Tracy Padot, vice-president. “That accounts for $431 million in economic impact and covers 7,500 jobs.”
For every dollar spent attracting tourists to the state, more than $5 is spent in the local economy, according to
a study recently released by the (MEDC).
And sports tourism is the Capital region CVB’s fastest growing segment.
Padot ticked off a slew of sites and special events as examples.
Ranney Skate Park, near
Frandor, is ranked in the top 10 in the nation for competitive skateboarding by the Nataional Geographic Society. Ingham County’s 540-acre
Burchfield Park in Holt has more than eight miles of trails for mountain biking. The
Capital City River Run, a half-marathon in the fall, brings in 2,000 competitors. The new
Demmer Shooting Center on the
Michigan State University (MSU) campus is scheduled to host the
National Indoor Archery Championship event, one of the biggest in the nation.
Then, there's the
Over the Edge event this June. Right now, people from all over the region are gathering sponsorships to rappel off the 23-story
Boji Tower in
Downtown Lansing on Saturday, June 5. It’s a fundraiser for the CVB. Anyone willing to raise $500 can get harnessed up and drop over the side of the building.
The
Dirty Feat Adventure Race on June 12 is all about getting dirty: mud is guaranteed. So is climbing something, maybe a tree. It’s a challenge race that will include canoeing, running, biking, and way-finding for the first 200 to sign up.
Economic DiversificationKevin Karpinski, founder of
Green Planet, led the tour. A union negotiator by day, he has been working for two years to launch the adventure tour company from his home in Okemos. It will formally launch in July.
Karpinski's research shows that 80 percent of adventure tourists want to customize their trips.
“People don’t want cookie cutter tours,” he says. So he is developing a website that will allow adventurers to plug in the components they want.
They also want a charitable component. (The February raft trip was a fundraiser for Project Fish, part of the
Grand Learning Network that teaches students in five school districts about the Grand River watershed).
The typical adventure traveler is someone who earns $75,000 a year in income. They might spend $8,000 a week for a trip, according to Karpinski's research.
But personal experience has informed much of his business plan. He got his start planning trips for his own large, blended family, with kids who range from high school age to three years old.
Organizing trips for the family quickly showed Karpinski a need for packagers—people who would assemble trip elements for those who are too busy to do it for themselves.
And he saw gaps in Michigan's adventure travel offerings. There are many great trails in the state, but no organized transportation to the trail heads, for example. Other states, like Colorado, help people trek from stocked cabin to stocked cabin, or support one-way mountain biking trips, or offer water tours transporting trekkers and equipment to various points.
Karpinski is developing tours almost as fast as he talks. Karpinski's
Bike-Row-Brew trip is a good example. In three nights and four days, travelers will gather at a brewing company before being transported to a river for a kayak trip. That night they’ll be fed and bunked in a camp prepared for them. Following a hearty skillet breakfast, they’ll take off on mountain bikes for two days of trail riding. The last night, they’ll stay at a resort. The cost for equipment, guide service, ground transportation, meals and beverages is $605.
Karpinski is also working with the
Indian Trails bus company to provide tours to cultural events, with plans to link a brewery visit with the upcoming
U2 concert at
Michigan State University’s Spartan Stadium on June 30.
His company has also recently been picked to open a kiosk and hub in the Alpena area to offer shipwreck kayak tours for visitors to the
Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary. You can
click here for pics and information.
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Gretchen Cochran is a frequent writer for Capital Gains. She once speared an old cigar butt in the waters off the coast of Cuba.
Dave Trumpie is the managing photographer for Capital Gains. He is a freelance photographer and owner of Trumpie Photography.
Photos:
Rafters head out into the Grand River
The start of the Hawk Islan Triathlon (photo TimeFramePhoto.com)
Floating down the river
Mountain biking at Burchfield Park
Kevin Karpinski
Enthusiastic rafters
All Photographs © Dave Trumpie unless noted