Haunted History Trail of Michigan – Partner Interest

A haunted location in your county is any partner open for at least 6 months each year that offers an authentic, out-of-season haunted (or unexplained) experience for visitors.

These locations will be interviewed by the HHT team to make sure they understand the program and what is expected of them. Briefly stated, that they and their staff are ready to welcome a para-curious guest at any time with at least a good ghost story.

For unguided locations (such as parks, roads, and cemeteries), we list those locations that are accessible to visitors for at least 6 months each year with a description of the haunted experience.

Once you are part of the trail, seasonal events and locations that are only open around "spooky season" aka September & October can be added to the calendar of events and do not count toward your total locations in terms of pricing tiers.

We accept a wide variety of spooky, creepy and unexplained experiences on the Haunted History Trail. The number one requirement is that they are authentically haunted. No haunted houses or hayrides.

While some locations offer fully haunted experiences like ghost hunts or tours, others have a softer experience around ghost stories - either as a paid experience or simply relating the spooky tales along with a regular customer interaction.

The Trail also contains unexplained phenomena such as a park that seems to transport people to different areas as they walk the paths; a lake with strange echoes; or UFO sightings.

There's not much work at all for haunted locations outside of what any DMO would ask of a partner.

Once they are willing to be part of the trail with their county, the HHT team interviews the location to share directly about the program and to ensure their staff are prepared to welcome para-curious guests.

As we develop more content about the trail, we may call on them for more details, send the photographer or spokesperson out to document their location, or send interested media for a FAM. Those will all be done with advance notice.

Other than those few times, our haunted locations can conduct business-as-usual and wait for the dark tourism audience to descend upon them.

All the numbers we've shared in the information deck are from the current program in NYS.

The Haunted History Trail has its own dedicated website, and our analytics come directly from that platform. These visitors are travelers specifically interested in this niche travel product, rather than those simply browsing general New York State experiences.

The one exception is the information we included about the dark tourism market. You can see that study by Grandview Research here. There is also data on the dark tourism market by Coherent Market Insights here.

We have spoken with Pure Michigan, and are updating them on the program as it progresses.

This program began as a grassroots initiative in New York State. I Love NY supported the program after it gained traction and demonstrated strong interest from DMOs across the state.

Michigan's first printed Haunted History Trail guide will come out in 2027!

The HHT guides are a cornerstone of the program and a key driver for building our email marketing list. Brochures are produced annually and fulfilled upon request from individual travelers interested in the Trail. These inquiries come from both our paid digital campaigns and organic traffic to the website.

Each brochure request also includes the option to receive county travel guides, and many travelers opt in for additional planning resources. For example, our 30,000 Haunted History Trail of NYS brochure requests in 2025 generated requests for more than 80,000 additional county travel guides.

For those who opt in for email marketing, they are added to our consumer newsletter and can be added to the county email marketing systems that they opted in for as well. Each county can access their leads generated through the HHT program.

Michigan's 2026 program has 3 partners:

1. Coldwater Country/Branch County
2. Discover Kalamazoo
3. Visit Keweenaw

Riley Kruer will be at the MACVB conference in September to meet and talk with any DMO or location interested in joining the trail in 2027.

We get it. We've worked creatively and flexibly with DMO partners for the past 17 years.

Some DMOs have split costs with their haunted locations to cover Trail participation.

Others are working with us to invoice flexibly around their fiscal years.

Of course, we need funds to run the program and create all the great opportunity with the para-curious travelers. However, we are familiar with DMO funding and resources and want to get this working.

When in doubt, reach out.

Great, we have more answers! Our team is happy to meet individually with your team.

Riley Kruer, Manager, HHT of Michigan

Riley.Kruer@TapIntoTravel.com

Sarah Martin, Director, Haunted History Trail Programs

Sarah.Martin@TapIntoTravel.com