GRAND HAVEN, Mich. — A new report from Grand Haven Main Street shows millions of people visit the city each year, but less people are visiting downtown.
While the waterfront may be packed with visitors, it's a different story on Main Street where they've seen a 2% drop in visitors since 2023. According to the report, 2.6 million visits to Grand Haven's downtown were made in 2023, that's just under 703,000 visitors in total.
"I'm grateful that we had that many people come into northwest Ottawa County, but it doesn't necessarily mean that everybody is going to come and shop," said Sharon Behm, Borr's Shoes co-owner.
While the 2% decrease in visitors has raised some eyebrows, no one is sounding the alarm quite yet.
"[That] is equivalent to about 4800 people, so it's not significant enough, but if it trends that way, then it tells us that we have to change how we're doing things," said Chandi Pape, Grand Haven Main Street executive director.
The report shows Grand Haven's Main Street is extremely seasonal, with downtown seeing three times the amount of visitors in July than it does in February.
However, Behm says she hasn't noticed much of a downtrend.
"I carry something that people need. You'd also be surprised how many people come into the summer in the beach town and literally forget their shoes," Behm said.
Behm said with 26 years in the community she's grown fond of the city's tourists.
"I've watched generations of families come to Grand Haven on an annual basis, but truly...we stay a year-round downtown because of our locals," Behm admitted.
Pape says she's not concerned with the report. She says they'll be able to use it going forward to step up how they market downtown and help businesses.
"It helps us to make, have conversations with developers and new businesses coming into town. We opened three new restaurants just this month, and this information helped us secure those leases," Pape said.
"We're trying to focus on the 700 and some thousand that do come downtown because they're coming here for a reason," Pape said.
The executive director of Grand Haven Main Street says they'll be applying for beautification grants and are looking at starting a new marketing campaign highlighting downtown, as they hope for positive trends in the next report.
This story was reported by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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