When Amari Steward refers to herself as Flint’s biggest cheerleader, that isn’t just a metaphor.
“I was literally a cheerleader at Flint Central,” said Steward, who is currently the executive director of Explore Flint & Genesee, a division of Flint & Genesee Group. Now, her role in Flint and Genesee County is cheerleading for the community as a career.
“Our number one goal and priority and our mission is to increase travel and tourism to Flint and Genesee County,” said Steward, who has been in her role since 2023 and worked for the Flint & Genesee Group since 2016. “We have a shared vision with the county and the city of Flint to be one of the top five communities in the state of Michigan by 2040.”
There are many metrics that define community strength – schools and education, housing affordability, availability of good jobs, and other resources that support thriving areas. Steward and her team are in charge of highlighting some of those entities in Flint and Genesee County in a way that connects more visitors and patrons to the many resources and businesses that exist here. Those include world-class museums and cultural facilities in the Flint Cultural Center, campuses of three major universities and a community college, successful sports teams and athletic facilities, and more than 11,000 acres that can be explored in the county parks system.
“We can attract visitors to come to our community through storytelling,” Steward said. “And the best way for us to do that is allow our community to tell that story – those business owners and people who were born and raised in the area.”
Explore Flint & Genesee recently unveiled their latest set of tools in that effort: a series of videos that highlight some of the many assets that make this area one of the most unique places to visit or live anywhere in Michigan. Those videos include a video highlighting the area’s pride, local spoken word and hip hop artist MAMA SŌL discussing the area’s thriving creative scene, muralist Kevin Burdick discussing public art throughout the county, and a look at the highly successful tourist destination Almar Orchards.
At the most basic level, the way people can help support this project is simple: watch them and spread the word.
“I obviously want people to share it,” Steward said. “But I want them to take ownership of this as well. I think that everyone will find a point of pride in these videos that kind of reinforces the way they see their community and invite others to come and explore as well.”
The video project came about as a result of other team members within Flint & Genesee Group expressing a need for more tools to use when they travel to attract major entertainment and sporting events, conferences, and other visitors to the community. Mainly, to succinctly and powerfully communicate Flint’s “hidden gems” in a way that makes them no longer hidden.
“We do that by giving (the community) a platform, sharing our own experiences,” Steward said. “The world class venues, we’re talking about the FIA, the Cultural Center, the exhibits at Sloan. We have the largest county park system in Michigan, so we’re talking about outdoor recreation and tapping into those activities that get people engaged and creating those lasting memories and wanting to come back and wanting to bring their friends and their family to explore. So we’re putting those venues on a platform so visitors and residents alike can choose how they wanna travel throughout Genesee County.”
The project took over a year to film and edit, and aligns with some of Steward’s own personal passions and experiences. Prior to moving back to Flint, she worked in the hospitality and hotel management industry in Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio, so she’s seen how other places build storytelling resources to attract visitors to their communities. And in Flint and Genesee County, she sees a nearly neverending supply of unique stories to highlight.
“We take pride in our stomping grounds and we’re very protective about how people talk about our communities,” Steward said. “So when I had an opportunity here at the Flint & Genese Group, I felt like this was already paired with my own personal goals to share the story of Genesee County and the impact that Flint has made not only on myself, but on America as a whole.”
Steward’s goal of attracting tourism aligns with the Flint & Genesee Group’s overall goal of attracting more residents to live and work in Genesee County. She encourages people or organizations interested in bringing big events or large numbers of visitors to the area to reach out to Explore Flint & Genesee to tap into the support they are able to provide.
“We hope people use these tools as a sense of pride, but also if there’s an opportunity for us to host an event that’s large, or if they have an opportunity to showcase Genesee County, reach out to us,” Steward said. “We have the tools and the resources to help secure large events in the area so that we can continue to tell our story and get others to visit.”
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