Visit Detroit Bolsters Love for the City During Hometown Tourist Day

Visit Detroit hosted its 10th annual Hometown Tourist Day as the city basks in national honors as a must-visit destination.

The New York Times ranked Detroit as one of 52 places in the world to visit in 2025. TIME magazine named Detroit's "Little Village" to its annual "World's Greatest Places" list.

Angela Jones, manager of partnership sales with Visit Detroit, explained in an interview with 7 News Detroit that Hometown Tourist Day's goal is to connect local businesses with local visitors.

"You don't have to go out of town to have a great time. You can definitely enjoy the metro Detroit area, so this is our way of connecting the metro Detroit businesses with the hometown visitors that we have," Jones said.

According to Visit Detroit's statistics, new businesses are supporting the increase in visitation to the city year over year. In 2024, Detroit welcomed 19 million visitors. Visit Detroit has set a goal of reaching 25 million visitors in a single year by 2030.

7 News Detroit spoke with several Detroiters about their favorite places to explore and things to do in the Motor City.

"Z alley: It's like a melting pot of so many different people, so it's like a different energy, a different vibe. If you want to experience different things, that's something to experience," said Ashei Kahn.

Joseph Blessman gave a shoutout to his favorite Detroit pizza place.

"It's called Grandma Bob's. Best vegan pizza place right now to go to. It's very good. They got a nice bar. They got nice ice cream, so you can go ahead and have a nice pizza. Good drinks and some good dessert with it," said Blessman.

Saundra Sherley recalls as a young person watching Smokey Robinson perform in the city. Now, she's downtown exploring her community.

"I haven't been down here in a long time," she said. "I'm enjoying everything right now, all the buildings."