“I saw comments online where people were frustrated with visitors. So I brought everyone I’d met over five years into one room—and that’s how Respect Marquette began.” — Susan Estler

Marquette County in Michigan is known for its breathtaking forests, rugged trails, and the endless blue of Lake Superior. But its most powerful asset might just be its community, and a unique effort to help visitors experience this special place respectfully and sustainably.

In this episode of Travel Beyond, host David Archer speaks with Susan Estler, CEO of Travel Marquette , about Respect Marquette County, an initiative that invites both visitors and locals to care for the area’s land, culture, and people. The coalition began after Susan noticed an uptick in frustration on social media about visitor behaviour. Rather than letting tensions rise, she brought community leaders together to start a bigger conversation.

That conversation has led to action. Today, the coalition champions Leave No Trace principles, promotes cultural awareness, and even launched a Bark Ranger program to encourage dog owners to model responsible outdoor behaviour. Quarterly meetings now bring together trail organizations, municipalities, and tourism leaders to align on shared values and solutions.

Marquette’s strategy doesn’t stop at behaviour change. It embraces a broader movement: slow travel. Susan believes visitors can better understand the place (and reduce their impact) when they slow down, linger, and connect. “Rather than going to seven places in six days,” she says, “maybe go to two and really immerse yourself.” The approach fits Marquette’s naturally relaxed pace and gives travellers a more meaningful experience.

And while Lake Superior might feel like an ocean, Marquette is no big city. With only 66,000 residents spread across the county, preserving the integrity of the land and lifestyle is critical. Over-visitation may not be about sheer numbers here; it’s about how people show up and what kind of impact they leave behind.

Susan also reminds us that around 50% of Marquette’s visitors come to see friends and family. That stranger you’re frustrated with? Might be someone’s cousin. “Just take a deep breath and show some grace,” she says. It’s a simple idea. But one with powerful potential to reshape the way we travel and treat destinations.

In this episode, you’ll also learn:

• How the Respect Marquette County coalition brings residents and visitors together.
• Why slow travel supports sustainability and community wellbeing.
• What Marquette is doing to protect natural sites from social media-fuelled overuse.
• How locals are helping model responsible behaviour through education and example.

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Show notes

• Discover the initiatives behind Marquette’s community-led approach to responsible tourism through the Respect Marquette County project → travelmarquette.com
  
• Explore how destinations like Marquette are redefining outdoor experiences with sustainability at the core in The Greater Great Outdoors feature → destinationthink.com
  
• Learn how Marquette is engaging pet owners in responsible recreation through the Bark Ranger program, complete with dog-friendly Leave No Trace tips and take-home bandanas → travelmarquette.com
  
• Learn the essential Leave No Trace guidelines that help visitors minimize their impact on nature → www.lnt.org

Episode Transcript

Susan Estler: Going back to slow travel and just taking the time to notice your surroundings. Taking your time to notice things that are important to the people who live there and respecting their lifestyle. That is the reason why you’re there. You’re there to experience a different pace of life and different people.

David Archer: Welcome to Travel Beyond. I’m David Archer from Destination Think, recording from Haida Gwaii, the territory of the Haida Nation off the north coast of British Columbia in Canada. On this show, we look at travel’s role in making a better world, and we highlight leading destinations and change makers. Our guests are taking local action that the world can learn from.

They’re helping to regenerate ecosystems, communities, and economies, and they’re often making positive change happen from the bottom up. Many of the voices we’ve highlighted are part of the Destination Think Collective, a peer group of more than 20 ambitious, forward-thinking destinations working toward a better future for travel and the planet.

As we’ve heard on the show, some destinations are asking visitors to shift their behaviour to make this better future that we’ve been talking about, especially as travel activity increases and sometimes threatens sensitive environments. Last week, Christie Pashby from Banff and Lake Louise Tourism told us about the effort to reduce traffic congestion in Banff National Park.

The park is doing that in part by providing new mass transit options and also through promotional campaigns like “Shift Into Park Mode.” Christie told us that park mode is about more than vehicles, though. It’s about more than literally shifting your truck into park. It’s about adopting a state of mind that’s a little different than the one you might have at home.

You need to prepare differently for your trip into the park than you do for your spontaneous drive to the grocery store. And the same is true of other non-national park places that you visit. Another destination trying to shift visitor mindsets is the town of Marquette in Marquette County, Michigan, on the shores of Lake Superior.

Travel Marquette is leading an important project there called the Respect Marquette County Coalition, and the coalition is bringing the community together to educate travellers on how they need to show care for Marquette and the environment when they visit. Our guest today is Susan Estler, the CEO at Travel Marquette, and she says one of the things that makes this a special place is its more relaxed pace of life.

She told me all about how her team is joining forces with others across the community to help preserve that feeling, to improve travel experiences, and also to build stronger relationships between residents, visitors, and the environment. Because hey, we can all use a little extra grace and respect sometimes, right?

Here’s our conversation.

Susan Estler: My name is Susan Estler and I am the CEO of Travel Marquette in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

David Archer: This isn’t your first role in a travel destination, is it?

Susan Estler: No, I actually started in Florida. I was there in Bradenton, Florida for seven years in marketing and then Panama City Beach after that. Then I was in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

David Archer: So you’ve been in the travel industry a little while then?

Susan Estler: Yes, over 20 years.

David Archer: Okay. Travel Marquette represents all of Marquette County, is that right?

Susan Estler: That is correct. We’re actually the largest county within the state of Michigan.

David Archer: Can you give us the lay of the land for people who aren’t familiar with the destination yet? What kind of environment are you in?

Susan Estler: We’re actually the largest municipality in the Upper Peninsula land-mass-wise. The Upper Peninsula is a third of the state of Michigan, but we have 3% of the population. Marquette is actually the largest city with a whopping 22,000 people, and our entire county, knowing that we’re the largest county in the state of Michigan, only has 66,000 people. So we’re on beautiful Lake Superior and we have a lot of inland lakes. We’re right on the lake and it’s just beautiful.

David Archer: I haven’t been to Lake Superior myself, but I know that, you know, maybe if you squint hard enough, you can see Ontario. Probably not, but—

Susan Estler: Maybe Thunder Bay, I don’t know. Maybe.

David Archer: So it’s a coastal city essentially. You’ve got a waterfront.

Susan Estler: Very much. Especially when I interviewed up here. It was interesting because I’ve always been a coastal person, you know, Florida, and I grew up in New Jersey, so Scranton was the furthest I had been from a large body of water. So when I interviewed here, I thought, well, the Midwest, I don’t really know. And when I got to the hotel, they put me right on the second floor overlooking Lake Superior. It was beautiful. It’s like being on an ocean. It’s really amazing.

David Archer: That’s wonderful. What’s one thing you miss about Marquette while you’re away?

Susan Estler: I miss the people. I also miss how cordial the people are as well. It’s just a really nice pace of life here. So when I leave this area and I go into more urban areas, having grown up in New Jersey and also in the Tampa Bay area, living there for a while, there’s a certain pace of life and your heartbeat just slows as you go over the Mackinac Bridge onto the U.P. It’s one of my favourite drives. I get to drive along Lake Michigan and then I cut up and go along Lake Superior to get to Marquette. So I really enjoy the views and just how beautiful it is.

David Archer: What’s one thing you always take friends to do when they visit you?

Susan Estler: Well, we always go out to eat and we always go to one of the breweries, and then we always go for a hike or a walk along Lake Superior, depending on what their skill set is. Sometimes bikes, you never know.

David Archer: Okay. Yeah. And so there’s a good brewery scene then in Marquette?

Susan Estler: Very much. I think another thing that really stands out is the artistic talent, the musical talent that we have here for such a small community. People are really creative and they’ll have a day job and then, you know, play guitar at one of the local breweries or something like that, or they’ll be an artist and they’ll have their artwork at one of the galleries that we have here. So it’s just a really creative group of people and just a really nice community.

David Archer: I noticed that the state-level tourism organization, Pure Michigan, has been promoting slow travel recently, and I was wondering how you think Marquette’s experiences kind of match that mindset?

Susan Estler: Well, you know, I think the nice thing is, especially with everything going on in the world, that there is just taking a slower pace to your vacation. So rather than going to seven places in six days, you can go to maybe two places and really immerse yourself into the community. Spend some time and enjoy the moment. I think that’s the most important thing about slow travel.

David Archer: A less frenetic pace, I suppose.

Susan Estler: Correct. And that you really immerse yourself and you get to spend time within the community instead of running from point A to point B and seeing the largest ball of twine or something like that. You know, you are really experiencing the destination. And I think the thing that’s nice are those personal interactions that people have and those little things that you remember in your mind as far as travel is concerned.

David Archer: Those memories that you can make when you’re really paying attention to the places where you go. Right.

Susan Estler: Exactly. Yes.

David Archer: About how many visitors come to Marquette each year?

Susan Estler: We usually have somewhere around about 1.3 million maybe coming through the entire county. Some of that might be overnight stays, and so some of that might be people who are coming for other reasons, but that’s, you know, a rough estimation of how many people.

David Archer: And how has that been changing in recent years? Has that always been the case since you’ve been there, or is that number growing?

Susan Estler: Well, it is every year kind of. I came in in 2018 and so 2019 was pretty much a normal year. And then, you know, of course you had COVID and so people were travelling from all over. We had two fraternity brothers. One lived on the west coast, one lived on the east coast. They met in Marquette. You know, you had a lot of families and people who were working virtually. So I called the summer of, I think it was 2021, or 2020, one of the two of them, the summer of high heels and expensive cars, because we had a lot—I saw women walking around Marquette with high heels on, which really doesn’t happen. And then very, very expensive cars coming through, which, you know, normally you have utility vehicles and that type of thing, as opposed to sporty-type cars. So then as soon as things kind of got back to normal, I guess, it kind of went back to normal and the number of people were less. And so we’re kind of into a normal flow. Although last winter we really didn’t have much snow at all, so that was kind of a problem as well. So it’s been a bit of a rollercoaster just because of global warming. You know, the winters have shifted and so activities have shifted as well. And so that shoulder season is becoming more and more important and possibly looking at other alternatives for activities during the winter months.

David Archer: Can you tell me a little bit about any challenges that have arisen in these more unpredictable years recently?

Susan Estler: Well, I think it’s really a matter of adjusting things. Like this past year we didn’t have the ski marathon because there just simply wasn’t enough snow and that was at the end of January. But because east of us had got quite a bit of snow and north of us had got quite a bit of snow, somehow missing Marquette, but the next town over on Lake Superior just had like five feet of snow. And so the dog sled race we were a little concerned about, but because there was so much snow to the east of us and that’s where the race does actually go and then come back around, it all worked out. So I think everybody is adapting pretty well and, you know, working with what we can and also looking at opportunities for indoor activities like arts and culture theatre. We have a wonderful film festival in October, the Fresh Coast Film Festival, that celebrates all things Midwest and outdoors. It’s really a wonderful place here in Marquette.

David Archer: You know, travel must affect local ways of life quite a bit with so many visitors and the things, the opportunities that are created as a result of that. And I want to talk a bit about the Respect Marquette Coalition. Can you tell me what the goal of that coalition is and why it was put together?

Susan Estler: I started noticing some comments on social media about visitors and things that they weren’t doing properly, and so I decided, in 2022, to have Kathy Ritter from Better Destinations come in and do a charrette. And so she did that and I gathered everyone that I had met over the course of five years and put them all in a room: our trails people, our municipalities, my board members, pretty much anybody I could think of that had some involvement with tourism at some level and threw them in a room. And we started talking about what was really important to the locals and what were things that we could do to make it a better experience for locals as well as for visitors. And so thus created Respect Marquette, which then some of the people within the county felt a little slighted because there’s Ishpeming, Negaunee, Marquette Township, Big Bay, and so we added the county very soon after we created the coalition. So we’ve continued that with a quarterly meeting. We sit down, have speakers with usually one person from the coalition to talk about their organization, what they have going on, and what’s important to them, and how we might be able to all help and all row in the same direction. So that has proved to be successful for us.

David Archer: You mentioned you were noticing some negative comments on social media, and I was wondering if you could give me an example of what kinds of things people had been saying about visitors at that time.

Susan Estler: Well, I think the most poignant for me was a woman who had been born and raised, and her family was from Marquette. She was living elsewhere and went to a local location. They were having a celebration of life for this family member who had passed away. And when she got back to her car, somebody had written, I guess in the dust on the car, “Go home” because she had a licence plate from out of state.

David Archer: Oh, wow.

Susan Estler: Yes, it just made me really sad that this woman, and so she went on about how upsetting it was for her that she was there, she was born and raised in Marquette, and that someone would have the nerve to suggest that she didn’t belong there. And so, you know, the interesting thing is I’ve been researching things. Fifty per cent of the people who come here to Marquette County are actually visiting friends and family. So, you know, the people, sometimes when it gets a little more congested and people are out, you know, the trees start blooming, the people start coming out and are more active outside and they have their friends and family visit them, which is certainly understandable. And so I guess just working to educate visitors. Some might not know where to go or how to proceed about doing a certain activity, giving them guidance with that. And also educating locals too. You know, there’s always the big debate between dogs and being able to let the dogs run and, you know, be dogs and other people who are petrified of dogs and want them on the leash like they’re supposed to be. And according to Michigan law, they’re supposed to be on a leash if they’re out. So there’s always that as well. So I think, you know, also following those seven principles from Leave No Trace, those are obvious things, but we started branching out. We’re doing a Bark Ranger programme for the dogs. So we have little bandanas that we’re going to leave at the hotels and bags for, you know, for their waste that they can pick up. And also talking to the school kids here in Marquette County to educate them young, to get them used to following those principles and knowing what they should do and the right things to do when they’re out exploring.

David Archer: Interesting. So the coalition is really trying to get everybody on the same page, locals and visitors included.

Susan Estler: Yes. Definitely. Definitely. That is the goal and we’re trying to do it in a friendly manner, making sure that everybody feels welcome. I mean, I think that’s one nice thing about Marquette is everybody is welcome here and it is really a great place to visit.

David Archer: And a lot of this, it seems like, is about protecting the outdoors. You mentioned Leave No Trace, and you’ve got quite a robust website about this as well. Can you tell me about some of the principles that you’re trying to encourage?

Susan Estler: I was afraid you would ask that because it’s like, do I have my seven principles? But, you know, certainly making sure that you leave it the way that you found it, if not better. Certainly, you know, making sure that you’re staying on a trail, that you’re not doing social trails. That’s one issue that we have in one area with our waterfalls. 

David Archer: Oh, what are social trails?

Susan Estler: Oh, social trails are, you know, instead of following the existing trail, you want to go to point B and you go directly to point B, creating another trail. What happens is that creates erosion and, you know, it’s just not good for the area. And we’ve had that with one of our waterfalls. It’s a really beautiful area, but it just has too many people going everywhere and not paying attention to taking care of the area.

David Archer: It seems like many places have these particular spots in the outdoors where a lot of people will congregate and for whatever reason, maybe that’s because it’s been established for a long time, or maybe it’s because, you know, it’s a social media trend of the moment or something. Are you finding that you need to sort of manage these hotspots around Marquette? Is that part of this as well?

Susan Estler: Yes, we actually pulled it off of our waterfall map, and we do not have it on our website. We’ve asked the state of Michigan not to promote it. We have asked the Upper Peninsula Travel and Recreation Association not to promote it because, you know, it just naturally gets people going to it. And if it continues the way that it’s going, that beautiful area that everybody loves, the trees are going to start falling in and the land is going to start eroding into the waterfalls. And we just don’t want that to happen. So we have pulled off some of our other things like a popular thing is jumping off of Black Rocks into Lake Superior. So it’s a kind of a steep jump into very cold water, especially early in the season. And so sometimes, you know, it can be dangerous. So public service has asked us not to be promoting that, and so we don’t. And you know, one of the sad things, like TikTok kind of wrecked it because so many people are putting it on TikTok that you have this huge line to jump off and it just, you know, then it doesn’t become spontaneous. It isn’t really fun. Yeah. It’s like waiting for a ride, you know? It’s just not the way it should be.

David Archer: It’s changing the character of what that place was maybe.

Susan Estler: Right. Definitely. Getting you out of the slow travel mindset.

David Archer: So then, you know, dispersion sounds like part of the strategy here. You know, giving people other options.

Susan Estler: Definitely. Promoting some places like Ishpeming and Negaunee have been working very hard on their neighbourhoods or their communities. And business has been moving in and they want part of the action too. There’s a beautiful little ice cream shop called Cone in Negaunee. They’re doing some renovations on the outside of the building. There’s a brewery in Negaunee as well. Some great restaurants. Ishpeming’s coming along as well. Big Bay has a bunch of stuff going on, so they want part of the action too. And yeah, you know, where visitors are, money is, and so that helps to build their community and helps to keep a vibrant community.

David Archer: You know, it sounds like maybe a win-win for Marquette in some scenarios too. Developing other experiences that keep people moving around a little bit.

Susan Estler: It is funny because that was the one thing that I noticed when I first got here was looking at social media. People, the locals, were sending everybody to three spots. And it’s like, yeah, we have a lot more to offer. And they’re like, well, we don’t want anybody to wreck it. And it’s like, but by sending everybody to three spots, you’re wrecking those spots and they’re beautiful spots. And we’ve got a lot of room to roam. And one of the gentlemen who’s involved with Downwind Sports mentioned that if you’re a local, you know, you can go five minutes and not see another human being. You know where those places are.

David Archer: Right?

Susan Estler: So, you know, maybe not promoting all of those places, but actually spreading people out up toward Big Bay and going toward Ishpeming and Negaunee definitely gives people another experience and another reason to come back.

David Archer: I noticed on the Respect Marquette blog, there are a few other areas of interest as well, and one of them is cultural awareness. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Susan Estler: Yes, We’ve been trying to work in consideration for the indigenous people here, the Ojibwe people. There is a beautiful set of sculptures that are down, the Seven Grandfathers, that are part of the Ojibwe culture. Those were done by a gentleman who is from Grand Rapids. He is indigenous as well, and did these beautiful sculptures in natural stone that he found here in the Upper Peninsula. So those are an installation. There’s going to be a cultural trail that goes along the water and certainly points that point out the history of the Native people here in the area.

David Archer: Can you tell me about what has made this coalition successful?

Susan Estler: I think the thing that I really love and one of the things that I love about what I do are the connections that are made, and nothing makes me more happy than to introduce two different organizations that then start working together because they find a commonality or they find that one person is solving another person’s problem. So I’ve seen that blossom. You know, it was amazing to me when we had that first meeting that a lot of these people had never met each other, but yet I had met them all in a matter of, you know, three, four years. And I just kind of put them all in one room. And so now we have different organizations working together on projects, partnering for grants and things like that. So it’s really encouraging and getting input from all of our different partners is great too.

David Archer: What’s one thing that you hope travellers can take away from this story or from, you know, the knowledge of the Respect Marquette Coalition’s work?

Susan Estler: Well, I think, you know, going back to slow travel and just taking the time to notice your surroundings, taking your time to notice things that are important to the people who live there and respecting their lifestyle. And that is the reason why you’re there. You’re there to experience a different pace of life and different people.

David Archer: I was going to ask what you think this project says about the kind of place that Marquette County is and local values and that sort of thing?

Susan Estler: Yes, I think that that is something that’s very important to the people who are here, coming in and being respectful of the area. I think most people do try to be respectful, but maybe they’ll learn a couple different things that they might take away with them and carry on to their next destination that they go to.

David Archer: That’s the idea, right? Hopefully the concepts and principles can spread. If you look ahead, you know, five or ten years, what do you want travel in Marquette County to look like?

Susan Estler: I want to keep it so that it is that slower pace of life. And I think just by virtue of where we’re located, the fact that it isn’t easy to get here. You know, you’re two and a half hours from most cities, you know, five hours from Green Bay or four hours from Green Bay. And so I think keeping that natural beauty, the fact that Lake Superior is the underpinning for everything that’s here. And just understanding the culture of, and keeping the integrity and the personality of all the different places that we have throughout the county.

David Archer: And what do you hope that visitors can do to help that positive vision come along?

Susan Estler: Well, I mean, first off would be just being aware of your surroundings, being sure that you are, you know, picking up your trash, the obvious things, you know, being respectful of the area. I think also too, just appreciating the different cultures that we have throughout the county. You know, there’s Big Bay and that is a very special place. It has the Thunder Bay Inn and it’s just really, you know, it’s just unique. And then we have Ishpeming and Negaunee. There are all sorts of bogs and, you know, all of the different little nooks and crannies and the birding that we have here is great. So I think keeping that blend of nature and special culture, I guess.

David Archer: As you look around the world, what kinds of places or sustainability solutions inspire you?

Susan Estler: Well, certainly Copenhagen and what they’ve been able to do, you know, Bend, Oregon and a lot of the places up in Canada to the west coast of Canada, you know, Revelstoke and, I mean, there’s just a ton of really terrific places to take inspiration from, to take a look at what they are doing. So I think, you know, just looking around the world and certainly Queenstown too. They’ve really done a great job as well, so you know, always being able to pull from different areas and look at how they’re doing things and maybe incorporating it with us.

David Archer: And for our listeners on the Travel Beyond Podcast, we’ve been able to feature many of those places, including Queenstown and Bend and some of the others you mentioned too. Do you have any last advice for other people working on changing visitor behaviour or the way people travel to a destination?

Susan Estler: I think just showing some grace and showing some appreciation for different people. But being firm in requiring people when they come to a place to be respectful. Our residents very much appreciate Marquette and Marquette County and what we have, and being able to preserve that is probably one of the most important things that we do.

David Archer: And if you wanted your community to know one thing, if you could speak to them all at one time in the same room, what would that be?

Susan Estler: It would be that 50% of the people who are coming to Marquette County are visiting friends and family. So the people that you might be upset with or impatient with are probably friends or family. You have a 50% chance they’re friends and family of someone you probably know because this is a really small community. So just take a deep breath and show some grace.

David Archer: That’s good advice. Thanks so much for being here with me today, Susan. I really appreciate it.

Susan Estler: Thank you.

David Archer: This has been Travel Beyond, presented by Destination Think. And that was Susan Estler from Travel Marquette. For more resources and show notes, visit our website at destinationthink.com. This episode was hosted, produced, and has theme music composed by me, David Archer. Sara Raymond de Booy, my co-producer, Lindsay Payne and Cory Price provided production support.

If you like what you hear, please take a moment to give us a five-star rating. It helps more people find us. Thanks so much for listening, and we’ll be back with more next week.