A story in The St. Ignace News' ongoing series bringing our readers fresh perspectives on the top issues facing the Straits area and the Eastern Upper Peninsula.

Adding a fresh coat of white paint to the main entrance at Mission Point, Josh Hetrick of Cheboygan says he enjoys the work. A member of the hotel's engineering department, he begins his second year as a full-time, year-around painter for the resort. During the summer, painting projects focus on outside work and in the winter, Mr. Hetrick is busy painting guest rooms. Aggressively preparing for this year's tourist season, which has travel experts differing in its potential, Doug Leedke of Mission Point Resort on Mackinac Island has put in place a new marketing plan that already is showing results. The number of people visiting the resort's Web site has tripled since one year ago, and over a seven-day period in the last week of April, the reservations desk took 1,200 bookings for summer stays.

"May, June, and July are all pacing ahead of last year," said Mr. Leedke, although August remains too far out for transit bookings and it is too early to predict how the season will fare, overall.

Mission Point Resort General Manager Doug Leedke stops in the newly remodeled hotel gift shop that includes Island-specific gifts like fudge-scented candles and decorative tiles designed with a map of the Island. Mr. Leedke stepped into the resort's lead role last August. The hotel has developed a new marketing strategy that focuses on families, he said, and stresses standards of service excellence from employees. It has redesigned its Web site and is offering more events.

"It's really that new service culture that is the fuel that's really going to make Mission Point someplace truly special to be," said Mr. Leedke.

Just days before the 243-room resort was opening for the season Friday, May 1, the staff moved about the large hotel lobby putting final touches on furniture, cleaning chandeliers, and attending training sessions. Their excitement was evident, a spillover from the enthusiasm Mr. Leedke brings to the resort as its new general manager.

Myra Martin of the Philippines dusts and polishes dinning chairs used in Mission Point's restaurant, The Epicurean, Wednesday, April 29. This is the first time Ms. Martin has been to Mackinac Island. "Everybody's friendly and has respect for each other and [looks] happy when working," she said. "The smiles on the faces, I love those." When the season ends on the Island, Ms. Martin will work in Colorado over the winter. He reports directly to resort owners Jeanie and John Shufelt and took over the lead role last August when he moved to the Island with his wife, Carol, and daughter, Holly, a junior in high school. The couple's son, Douglas, known as "DJ," will be a junior at Purdue University in Indiana this fall.

The family, Mr. Leedke said, loves living on the Island.

"This Island is just such a neat place to raise a family," he said. "It's kind of got that Mayberry feel to it, as corny as that sounds. The Island residents all kind of look out for each other, very neighborly. I haven't met anybody that isn't just absolutely wonderful yet."

The Indiana native has 25 years of experience in hotel management, spending most of his career working for Ritz-Carlton Resorts, where he honed his skills and learned how to teach excellent service skills to staff members. He also worked for a hotel management group that sent him to several spots, including Tree Tops Resort in Gaylord. He studied the food and lodging at Western Illinois University.

Juggling new event plans for Mission Point this summer, hiring staff, and putting in place a new marketing program has kept him busy, and even during a weak economy, he remains optimistic. The hotel was nearly fully booked for its opening weekend.

"With the economy this year, there are so many unknowns, you kind of have to plan for the worst, because you don't know who is going to show up, and hope for the best. We're being very, very conservative with everything right now."

Last year the hotel employed about 250 people. It will begin this season with 190 and the staffing level will be reevaluated in June to see if additional employees are needed.

"So, even though there are good signs, we are still holding our cards very, very tight to our vests," he said. "The worst thing you can do is get somebody up here and then not have anything for them to do."

Guests this year are value driven and actively seeking room discounts, he said.

"It's the first time I've seen guests calling in and negotiating at that level," he said.

A new marketing plan of advertising online with downstate newspapers is proving to be effective, he said, and has tripled the number of visits to the Web site compared to last year. Most visitors to the site are from Michigan.

"Just in the last week alone, we've put 1,200 transient rooms on the books," he said. "So that kind of early indicator of all that volume is a very, very positive sign."

Group reservations, which include churches, students, and corporate guests, however, have fallen to 2006 reservation levels, although he is hoping the increase in transient bookings will continue.

"It's still a wait-and-see game," he said, "but there are more good signs at this point than bad signs that it's going to be at least an OK year."

Some Island businesses are getting inquiries from residents in neighboring states as a result of the Pure Michigan advertising campaign, said Mr. Leedke, although most of those contacting Mission Point are from Michigan. The advertising is getting the Island exposure in new out-of-state markets that many businesses cannot afford to buy on their own.

"My basic thinking is, anytime you can get a guest on the Island, that's step one," he said. "So if we work together and all just get them here first, once they're here and fall in love, then we'll worry about fighting over them to see who they stay with and who they eat with. Before you can even have that opportunity for any of that, we've got to get them to the Island, and it looks like the Pure Michigan campaign is going to do that fairly successfully."

With the federally mandated cap limiting the number of H2B visa workers coming to the U.S. each year, Mr. Leedke traveled to Asia seeking student visa employees, making stops in Singapore, Taipei, and Bangkok. The hotel also was able to get about 50 employees on H2B extensions. When the U.S. economy began to weaken, the hotel pulled back on its out-of-country recruiting, deciding more regional employees would be seeking work. The decision proved correct, and this year the hotel has more staff commuting each day to the Island.

He estimates that about 90% of the hotel's employees last year were foreign workers, while this year it has dropped to 60%.

Before being introduced to his supervisor, an employee receives training. Employees learn the resort's mission, values, and its doctrine of service.

"So all our employees know why they are here, why we are here, what we believe in as managers and what our philosophy is, and more importantly, just like Mercedes Benz manufactures fine automobiles, we can manufacture fine service," he said.

The resort has needed stability in employees, he said, and lacking H2B visa legislation for hourly workers, the stability will have to come from management staff, which he now has in place. About 20 employees work at the resort year-around.

"I think that more than anything else in the world, what Mission Point needed was stability," said Mr. Leedke. "It needs a team that's solid, that can stay here, is engaged in the community, is engaged in Mission Point, and wants to be a part of this whole magic thing that's going on here."

As for the redesigned Web site, he said, "People are more engaged and hanging onto the pages longer, and they are going deeper into the site than they were last year," he said. "That either means we got it right, or we got it wrong and they're hanging on the pages longer because they are lost in the site. We're hoping it's the good one and they're hanging there because they're having fun and they like the site."

Also new are food and drink specials and menus in the Round Island Bar and Grill and in the deli, Lakeside Marketplace. The Epicurean has become an upscale steakhouse.

The resort's gift shop has been completely remerchandised.

The Kids Club is open all day and until 11 p.m. to allow parents to have a night off. First-run movies will be open to the public and 18-hole night golf will be offered.

For children, Mac the Moose will read stories in the main lobby, a 12- foot screen will show movies, and outdoor toys will be new.

"You can't look back," said Mr. Leedke, "but looking forward, Mission Point is going to be the family destination that it should be."