 Touristic Detroit, Then and Now: Automobility, Ruin, and MICE (Michigan Central Station), with the Detroit Auto Show in Service of a Possible Renaissance? Rethinking Regenerative Event Tourism - My Drive, My Show, My Business, My City, My Detroit, MOTOR CITYLe Détroit touristique d’hier à aujourd’hui: automobile, ruine et MICE (Michigan Central Station), salon (Detroit Auto Show) au service d’une renaissance ? La question du tourisme événementiel régénératif - My Drive, My Show, My Business, My City, My Detroit, MOTOR CITYPatrice Ballester ()
Post-Print from HAL Abstract: Long regarded as a symbol of American industrial decline, Detroit is now experiencing a touristic revival, with its attractiveness sustained—despite the city's bankruptcy—by a persistent branding strategy. The city's image is carefully staged and narrated by Visit Detroit, a communications office that projects a dual discourse combining leisure-cultural appeal and business-tourism potential. Once the global capital of the automobile industry, Detroit endured profound economic hardship and deindustrialisation, leaving behind an urban landscape scarred by shrinkage and architectural decay. In parallel with the rise of the so-called ruin porn phenomenon—which aestheticises abandoned buildings and has captured the imagination of photographers and urban explorers—debates have emerged surrounding the ethical tensions between heritage in transition and voyeuristic tourism. Amid these discourses, a new urban and marketing strategy has taken shape, centred on hosting major events of the MICE type (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions). While some of these events follow conventional formats, there is a growing will for them to operate as regenerative initiatives that benefit Detroit's entire community—its central neighbourhoods and impoverished outskirts alike—through the involvement of conscious, locally engaged visitors attuned to the city's renewed social contract or "New Deal." In this context, the very scars of the past have become assets in a broader strategy of touristic reinvention. New urban amenities are emerging or being repurposed through business tourism and convention activity—tools which, since the 19th century, have contributed to building a dynamic, forward-looking image of Detroit as a phoenix-like metropolis open to commerce and reinvention. This paper seeks to interrogate the role of regenerative event tourism within a new phase in the city's touristic, industrial, financial, and land-use history, a phase whose trajectory began in the 2020s with the horizon of the 2030s in view. Overall, economic activity and communication efforts remain centred around the automobile, with Detroit's industrial heritage undergoing regeneration as a foundational pillar of its transformation. The Henry Ford Museum, the Detroit Auto Show, and the adaptive reuse of former factories are now drawing not only investors, but also new forms of MICE engagement aimed at serving the city, its residents, and inclusive employment strategies. At the heart of this effort are two landmark infrastructures: the fully renovated Cobo Hall—now Huntington Place—and the symbolic Michigan Central Station. These sites, once derelict, are now being woven into curated touristic itineraries, reshaping perceptions of the city through both aesthetic and regenerative lenses. Despite decades of economic, social, environmental, and health crises, Detroit is betting on business tourism and event hosting to attract conventions, visitors, enterprises, and decision-makers—while rebranding itself through the lens of renewed amenities. The development of modern congress centres and an upgraded hotel offering aim to draw international events. At the forefront of this long-term strategy stands the Michigan Central Innovation District – Station (MCID-S), inaugurated in 2024 as a flagship initiative led by the Ford Motor Company. This initiative aspires to support a diverse, multi-ethnic city through a revitalised commercial and cultural offer, while instilling a renewed sense of civic pride around the city's so-called "Renaissance." This dynamic is further reinforced by the regeneration of specific neighbourhoods where art, music, and gastronomy contribute to a redefinition of the city's image—closely linked to its emerging MICE identity. Through a mixed-method approach including a social media-based questionnaire and targeted interviews with administrators at MCID-S, Cobo Hall, and Visit Detroit, this study sketches a singular touristic portrait of the metropolis, highlighting the roles of public and private actors and the direct and indirect impacts they generate. These findings illuminate an atypical form of urban reconversion, wherein automobiles, ruins, and event-driven strategies converge to foster renewed appeal. However fragile it may be, this renaissance reveals the transformative potential of post-industrial cities—made visible through a reinvention of their heritage and infrastructures via MICE-based regeneration. Keywords: MICE; auto show; city; car; business tourism; Michigan Central Station; regenerative tourism; crisis; industrial legacy; Detroit; Salon de l'automobile; ville; automobile; tourisme d’affaires; tourisme régénératif; crise; héritage industriel; Détroit (search for similar items in EconPapers) Published in Triomphe, chute et renaissance : les représentations de la ville de Détroit (Michigan) et leurs sous-textes idéologiques, politiques et éthiques, Université Jean Monnet et Cité du design de Saint-Etienne, Jun 2025, Saint-Etienne (Université Jean Monnet / Cité du Design), France There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it. Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05171685 Access Statistics for this paper More papers in Post-Print from HAL |
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