During 2024, Upper Peninsula search interest has underperformed forecasts. Lower search interest during the first months of the year was undoubtedly partly caused by a very warm winter with little snow limiting winter sports often popular in the Upper Peninsula. However, this low search interest has continued into the 2024 summer peak.

Previous investigations compared results between data pulls, looked at results for individual places, and looked at Mackinac Bridge crossings. This information combined with my initial work for this project made me think that maybe much of the drop in search interest came from the same reason that search interest in the Upper Peninsula increased do begin with: from other places in the Upper Peninsula. So, I pulled out my old program to look at search interest from different sources.

This time I looked at four different places in the Upper Peninsula that were previously growing in search interest from sources throughout the state. I find considerable evidence that Northern Michigan places are getting less ‘self’ search interest from other places in Northern Michigan.

This could be considered both good and bad news. The good news is that there is unlikely a large shortfall of tourism interest into the Upper Peninsula coming from downstate. However, a lot of the internal interest that came about after COVID-19 seems to have subsided. No doubt, some people who started outdoor recreation activities or even moved to Northern Michigan have been recruited into these activities and homes and no longer have the need to search for them. However, others no doubt have lost interest in these activities or moved back.