Michigan has a new face to lead its tourism efforts: David West, vice president of marketing at Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains Visitors Bureau.

West, 43, starts Dec. 1 as vice president of Travel Michigan, leading the state’s tourism branding, advertising and public relations efforts and overseeing the Pure Michigan campaign, which this year has a $29 million budget that West hopes to continue to build. It’s a return home for West, who grew up in East Lansing.

He knows the Grand Traverse region and Traverse City Tourism president and CEO Brad Van Dommelen and sees Traverse City as a state “gem” in tourism product. The Ticker caught up with West about how he’ll take on his new job.

Ticker: What do you want Michiganders to know about you?
West: That’s a great question. I have spent my adult career life in tourism, and I am extremely passionate about the industry. I love a challenge, and I want to be national leaders, and continue to be national examples, of how tourism is done right. What that means is that we’re going to always strive to have the best marketing campaigns…and to make sure that we have open lines of communication. I want to make sure that we’re a helpful resource. I absolutely love this industry. It drives me in the morning and I never stop thinking about it.

Ticker: From an outsider’s perspective, what opportunities do you see to build Michigan’s brand?
West: I think that there’s opportunity to obviously expand it internationally. I think there’s an opportunity to understand what’s happening now with the international market, and start to build in some partnerships to really leverage the brand into the homes and hearts of international visitors. By that I mean, we have the China market that’s growing, we have Brazil, we have the U.K., Germany, we have Canada, Japan, these are all great potential partners. We need to let Michigan be a destination of choice for them to come to visit.

Ticker: Having worked at convention and visitors bureaus, you have a background in destination marketing. How will you parlay that, or bring it to play, here in Michigan?
West: I’ve worked for seven years now in convention and visitors bureaus, and coming from that background, I know how much the CVBs in the state work…and work really hard to promote their area. I want to give our CVBs and our stakeholder partners, all the help in the world. The cooperative advertising programs, I want to make sure that we can grow and expand them, because we’re all in it together.
In addition, we want to make sure that we give our partners all the resources and tools in the world to make their jobs, and their lives easier. We want to make sure that they have the research, have the numbers, so that we’re supporting them.
I want to be an advocate for our local tourism communities across the state, and I will help support them -- either provide guidance or information or (by) me coming to their meetings and voicing the importance of tourism as an economic development tool.

Ticker: Do you have any thoughts on building the Traverse City region’s tourism?
West: The first thing I want to do is visit with the community, and visit with the hospitality and tourism community in the Traverse City area, and have a full understanding of what their vision is. I want to help that vision, and be a part of that vision. And I want to do a lot of listening. I think that I want to take the best of what Traverse City has, and make sure that everyone in the country knows that.