Best of Times or Worst of Times?: Five burning questions about TC's milestone summer tourism season
June 2026
It’s not every year the United States celebrates its “semiquincentennial” – the word for a 250th anniversary. It’s also not every year that your town’s marquee festival (and biggest tourism draw) marks its own centennial.
For Traverse City, both of those major milestones are happening in the very same summer – and on the very same weekend.
Trevor Tkach, president and CEO of Traverse City Tourism (TVC), says that convergence is enough to set up the summer 2026 as one for the record books.
He’s got good reason to feel bullish: In January, Cherry Capital Airport (TVC) announced its third consecutive year of record-breaking traffic. 2025 brought a whopping 935,816 passengers through TVC, up 19% from 2024’s total of 787,114 passengers. A similar growth pattern in 2026 would bring TVC over the million-passenger barrier for the first time ever, putting northern Michigan in even more rarified air as a national and global destination.
Despite Tkach’s optimism, not everything is rosy in the world of tourism. Between climbing inflation, staggering fuel costs, an ongoing shutdown of the Transportation Security Administration, and a general sense of global upheaval, travel in 2026 is more difficult and more expensive than it’s been in years. Add a series of more localized issues – from a shuttered campground to Traverse City’s recent streak of negative headlines – and there is plenty of reason to wonder whether this summer could actually be a down period for TC’s tourism economy.
Will the summer’s momentous milestones carry the day for local tourism? Or will the many headwinds send would-be visitors running for cover? The TCBN dissects five burning questions about the summer 2026 tourism season, in search of a clear answer.
The Fourth of July this year will see major 250th anniversary celebrations all around the United States, including in New York City's Times Square.1. Will America’s quarter-century celebration move the needle for Traverse City?
The United States of America is celebrating a big birthday this year, and an extra-festive Fourth of July is in the cards for communities across the country. The question is: Will America’s 250th anniversary bring any measurable uptick in tourism for the Grand Traverse region?
“I think we're going to see more patriotic marketing and more patriotic behavior, just nationally, and that gives people an excuse to go see things,” Tkach said. “(The semiquincentennial) encourages people who live in the United States to go explore, and it encourages people from outside the United States to come and celebrate with us.”
While big cities will be the seat of many major celebrations – in New York City, Times Square will host a New Year’s Eve-like countdown to July 4 – Tkach expects small towns like Traverse City will be just as well-positioned to capitalize on Independence Day enthusiasm.
“It’s nostalgia,” he explained. “You're looking for something that reminds you of your childhood. You're looking for things to remind you of the last time you had a great Fourth of July celebration you had. A lot of folks have that in northern Michigan.”
Add in the Cherry Festival’s 100th anniversary and the proximity of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore – “I think people are really going to be seeking out those national park opportunities this summer,” Tkach said – and early July could be a perfect storm of tourism for Traverse City.
“I think those extra things will separate us this year, as people are looking at options of where they want to spend this monumental anniversary,” Tkach concluded. “I can just imagine someone looking at Traverse City and saying, ‘Wow, this destination has a lot to offer, and is really checking a lot of the boxes for what I’m trying to experience in the summer of 2026.'”
If there’s a thorn in the side of the semiquincentennial, it’s that America is approaching this celebration of national unity during one of its least united times.
“Will Politics Derail America’s 250th Birthday Bash?” The New York Times asked in a July 4, 2025 article, citing the then-recent “military parade commemorating the 250th anniversary of the founding of the Army.” That event spurred national backlash, epitomized by hundreds of anti-Donald Trump “No Kings” protests held across the country on the same day. Historians told the Times that “growing political polarization had left many people with a deep uncertainty over what exactly the semiquincentennial is celebrating.”
The National Cherry Festival began marking its 100-year milestone with the coronation of this year's Junior Royalty.2. Will the National Cherry Festival be a bigger draw than usual?
Because July 4 falls on a Saturday this year, it aligns with opening day of the 100th National Cherry Festival. Tkach, who previously served as executive director of the Cherry Festival, sees the dovetailing of those significant dates as a good omen for local tourism this summer.
“Because it’s starting on the Fourth of July, I think that’s just going to be a shot in the arm for the festival right off the bat,” Tkach said. “To have that type of energy and anticipation day one – and then to have that energy carry through the week – I just think it’s going to be a great, great festival this year.”
While Cherry Festival Executive Director Kat Paye is plenty bullish about this year’s festival, she admits the semiquincentennial has made planning significantly more difficult than normal.
“We’ve been planning this festival for a number of years, because our parades, our air shows, things like that, really do have to be planned multiple years in advance,” Paye explained. “We knew coming in that it was America's 250th birthday, along with the festival's 100th, all opening on the Fourth of July. So, we knew there were going to be some challenges with scheduling when it came to air show performers, parade marshals, musical performers, things like that. We had best-laid plans, but a few things have changed that were completely out of our control.”
One of those big changes was the air show. Typically, the Cherry Festival books the U.S. Navy Blue Angels every other year. Since that beloved flight squadron last brought its death-defying aerobatics to Traverse City in the summer of 2024, the Cherry Festival team initially hoped to have the Blue Angels back to headline the 100th anniversary in 2026. Instead, the festival announced last December that the Blue Angels won’t return until 2027.
“We did not anticipate that an air show that is traditionally on Memorial Day weekend was going to shift to the Fourth of July,” Paye told the TCBN, referring to the famous FourLeaf Air Show held each year at Jones Beach State Park in Wantagh, New York. FourLeaf is typically headlined by either the Blue Angels or the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds, but has never taken place in July until this year.
“When we were looking at this date three, four, five years ago, the plan was for sure to have the Blue Angels,” Paye said.
FourLeaf’s booking of the Blue Angels left the Cherry Festival scrambling to find an alternative option for its own air show.
“We were hopeful the Thunderbirds would be able to make an appearance this year, but we found out in December that was not an option,” Paye said.
Instead, this year’s air show will be headlined by the Air Combat Command F-16 Viper Demo Team, a U.S. Air Force aerial team based at Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina. The show will also feature the C-17 West Coast Demo Team, the U.S. Navy F/A-18 Rhino Demo Team, and a search-and-rescue demo team from the U.S. Coast Guard’s local air station.
While Paye knows Cherry Festival regulars will be disappointed not to see the Blue Angels there for the 100th anniversary, she hopes this year’s festival will do justice to the milestone. Festival organizers are bringing back a few retired events (including the milk carton boat regatta and the downtown bed race) and introducing new ones (such as the premiere of a documentary showcasing 100 years of the cherry industry and the Cherry Festival, and how it all ties together; and the festival’s first-ever nighttime air show, featuring a drone display choreographed to the Fourth of July fireworks).
“We have 150 events in eight days, so there’s plenty going on, but it’s definitely been challenging to deliver what I think the community is hoping for,” Paye said. “I think expectation and reality has been really interesting so far. As we’ve been announcing things, we’ve had a lot of people saying, ‘Oh, we expected more,’ and I always say, ‘Tell me more about what you expected.’ Our budgets haven't changed a lot, but we need to produce the festival we always do, and then some. So, it’s definitely been a unique process, but we’re still excited, and we know that, in the end, it’s going to be an amazing celebration of cherries.”
Gas prices this summer are expected to remain significantly higher than they were a year ago, potentially hampering tourism.3. Could rising costs and traveling challenges keep would-be visitors away?
According to AAA, the national average gas price as of mid-May was more than $4.50 a gallon, compared to $3.13 a year ago. Overall, personal consumption expenditures in the U.S. were up 3.5% year-over-year in March, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. The increase was driven mostly by gasoline and energy costs, but also propelled by significant upticks in health care costs (21.3%), motor vehicles and parts (17.5%), insurance and other financial services (14.6%) and food and beverages (6.9%).
Asked whether these economic factors could depress American travel trends this summer, Tkach is optimistic.
“I've been here long enough to know that when the economy is good, we do good, and when the economy is bad, we still do good,” he said. “Yes, gas prices are high. We're going to have to deal with that all summer. But I suspect that if the choice is between flying your family of five across the country to go experience a cool destination, or putting all your family into one car for four or five hours, clearly, the gas tank is still far less expensive than the airline ticket. I think that's where we win. We’ve got a market of 20 million people within a stone's throw of Traverse City, and I think a lot of those folks are going to say, ‘Forget it to the plane ticket,’ and they're going to drive up to see us.”
Paye, meanwhile, is a more on the fence.
“We are hopeful we will still have the same visitor growth we've had in years past, but I would say seeing gas prices at $4.99 per gallon is definitely a concern,” she said. “I think people are being very intentional with their dollars right now. We're definitely seeing that downward trend in a variety of events – for our race registrations, for concert ticket sales, et cetera.”
Paye is also concerned with how rising costs could hit the festival’s own bank account.
“Gas prices being higher affects us, too,” she said. “I mean, think about how many generators we run, how many trucks we run, and how those costs are going to affect the bottom line of the festival. We’re a nonprofit organization, so our goal is always to be as accessible financially to as many people as we can. Ninety percent of our events are free to the public, and that will still be the case. But extra expenses are definitely on our minds this summer.”
Springtime flooding in northern Michigan could impact this summer's tourism season, and not just because of the collapsed Beitner Bridge.4. Will construction projects and closures pose a challenge?
The good news: For the first summer since 2024, Grandview Parkway will be free of closures. Having that corridor open should mean a significantly less gridlocked summer in and around Traverse City’s downtown core.
But this summer could still be a challenging one from a traffic perspective – especially for anyone heading to Chums Corner or Interlochen.
That area was already going to be tied up with closures and traffic delays this summer, thanks to the construction of a new roundabout at the “Interlochen Corners” intersection of J. Maddy Parkway and South Long Lake Road. The collapse of the Beitner Road bridge over the Boardman River, caused by excessive rainfall and flooding in mid-April, has thrown an extra wrench into things.
Dan Watkins, manager of the Grand Traverse County Road Commission, estimated in April that the bridge would likely take at least six months to rebuild, meaning there is no chance Beitner will reopen for any part of the summer season. The road closure has already led to significant disruptions this spring, backing up detour routes like Hartman Road. This summer is expected to be even worse, thanks to additional traffic headed south for things like the summer concert series at Interlochen Center for the Arts.
Tkach says he was watching the flooding reports with bated breath in April, especially when it appeared the Boardman River crossings on South Airport Road – near Logan’s Landing – might suffer a similar fate to Beitner Road. Losing that particular crossing, he admits, would have been catastrophic for local traffic, let alone the summer tourism season. Fortunately, the South Airport crossings held, keeping Tkach hopeful summer traffic won’t be much worse than normal in most areas.
Still, Tkach admits Traverse City’s springtime flooding could prove problematic for more than just road traffic.
“A number of our properties are still getting cancelations because people believe we’re flooded,” Tkach said. “The TCT board is made up of both hoteliers and property managers, and at a recent meeting, when one person raised those concerns, everybody’s head started to nod. That caught me by surprise, because I thought we were over it. But everybody loves bad news, and these visuals of washed-out bridges and flooded landscapes have, I think, proven to be very popular on social media.”
Tkach is also concerned with the closure of the campground at Keith J. Charters Traverse City State Park.
The campground shut down after Cherry Festival last summer, making way for a multi-year improvement project at the park. This year, the campground is closed all summer long, with the new-and-improved version not getting its debut open until spring 2027. With 348 campsites at the State Park, and approximately 133,000 campers tallied there during the 2024 season, Tkach says Traverse City will surely face some level of economic blow from the closure.
“We have campers calling (TCT) all the time, clearly looking for alternatives,” Tkach said. “There's a very significant segment of the traveling population that wants to camp out, so what the closure has done is it's compressed the demand to some of the other surrounding campgrounds. It’s also probably transitioned some travelers to a substitute, like an Airbnb or a hotel. And we do have more hotel inventory than we've ever had before here in the Grand Traverse County, so there's still plenty of opportunity for folks. But I'm sure the economic impact won’t go unnoticed by our local businesses. That’s a pretty significant campground – one of the most popular in the state – so to have it offline, it definitely shakes things up.”
5. How much will Traverse City’s recent run of negative national headlines factor in?
Traverse City is no stranger to national attention. In recent years, the Grand Traverse region has landed glowing endorsements from The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Eater, Forbes, Midwest Living, and many others, earning praise for everything from its beaches to its culinary scene. The notices have become so commonplace that many locals now roll their eyes at every new write-up, decrying the extra exposures and the additional tourist traffic they will surely send our way.
But what happens when Traverse City’s negative headlines are suddenly as loud as its positive ones?
In 2025, the two most-read stories on the Traverse City Ticker – the TCBN's sister publication – concerned violent crimes. The first, a mass stabbing attack at Walmart last July, ended with 11 victims in the hospital, six in critical condition. The second, a shooting at a city parking deck in November, left one city employee dead; the case is now going to trial, with five young men facing charges. Both stories broke local containment, garnering coverage from the likes of CNN, NBC News, Associated Press, MLive, and The Detroit News.
Those cases, along with additional alarming news already in 2026 – a terrorism threat at Munson Medical Center in January, or a road rage incident in April that escalated into an ax attack – raise the question of whether Traverse City’s image as a safe, idyllic vacation destination is still intact.
“I haven't seen a tipping point where our long-term reputation has taken any significant damage due to these issues,” Tkach said. “I think, in the moment, those issues are real and can be scary, and it probably does deter travel in that immediate time frame. But long-term, I’m optimistic we can get past some of those things, solve some of those issues locally, and maintain the level of quality experience people have come to expect when they visit.”
