The final numbers aren’t in yet, but as the state swings into Labor Day weekend to close out summer, all signs signal it’s been a sunny one for the tourist business in Michigan.

Visitors roared into the Sleeping Bear dunes after they were named the most beautiful spot in America and they flipped for the Caseville cheeseburger festival. And while tourists still kept a careful eye on their budgets, they were ready for some fun despite the down economy.

In Metro Detroit, hotel occupancy was the highest in the last four years, and the July rate was the best since the dot.com boom of 2000. Meanwhile, lakeside resort areas in the rest of state are reporting gains from the award-winning Pure Michigan ad campaign, which is drawing more out-of-state visitors.

“It’s been an amazing summer,” said Mary McGuire Slevin, executive director of the Mackinac Island Tourism Bureau. “The hotels did well this year compared with the last couple of years. Some are reporting occupancy is up 18 percent to 28 percent, which is huge. They barely had a night open for a while.”

The same held for the MGM Grand Detroit hotel and casino, where a winning season for the Tigers and several big-name concerts drew guests.

“It’s much better than last year,” said Lisa Williams, director of sales at MGM Grand. “It’s increasing steadily.”

Those increases came despite some iffy weather and higher gas prices, but aren’t likely to get much of a boost this weekend.

According to AAA of Michigan, about 1 percent fewer Michiganians will travel 50 miles or more for the holiday weekend, though that’s still a total of 1.2million travelers. Fears that high gas prices — which hit a record statewide average of $4.26 in May — would dampen vacations faded as gas prices dropped a bit during the summer, down to a state average of $3.76 Tuesday. That’s still about $1 more per gallon more than last year.

“We have the sense that people traveled more this year than last year, but that with the economy they were careful with their money,” said AAA Michigan spokeswoman Nancy Cain.

A search for bargain vacations may be behind the increase in out-of-state visitors spurred by the Pure Michigan ad campaign, lauded by everyone in the travel industry.

“Last year was the first that we saw more spending by out-of-state vacation travelers than by Michigan residents,” said George Zimmermann, vice president of Travel Michigan at the Michigan Economic Development Corp.

Zimmerman said that while he won’t have final tourism numbers for three to six months, hotel data shows Michigan’s statewide occupancy rate in July was up 8.2 percent from last year, to 51.4percent. That’s below the national average of 60.7 percent, but growing at nearly twice the rate.

“Since the beginning of 2010, we were further behind to start with but we’ve been growing faster than the national average for the last year and a half,” Zimmerman said.

The growth was even faster at Sleeping Bear dunes after the TV news show “Good Morning America” named the dunes the most beautiful place in America two weeks ago, noted Dusty Shultz, superintendent of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. The park’s website jumped from 10,000 visits a day to nearly 60,000.

“The first week after the announcement, our visitors’ center was up about 500 additional people on Saturday and nearly 1,000 on Sunday,” Shultz said.

The park gets 1.2 million visitors a year and was already up 2 percent in July and should be up a few thousand more when the August attendance is finalized, she added.

The attention also is bringing more visitors into nearby Traverse City, already a popular tourist destination, reported Brad Van Dommelen, president of the Traverse City Convention and Visitors Bureau.

“Last summer was a record for us. So when we went into this year, we were concerned whether we could match it,” Van Dommelen said. “We saw a real uptick in activity once mention was made on “Good Morning America.” It’s rare for people to come to the dunes without coming to Traverse City.”

Traverse City also is seeing more out-of-state visitors, he added. “They’re not just from bordering states, but more people from states like Texas and the Carolinas and all down the East Coast.”

He credits the city’s out-of-state marketing efforts, as well as adding a Pure Michigan campaign dedicated to the city, a tactic Mackinac Island also used. “Our future growth here needs to come from new markets outside the state,” Van Dommelen said.

The only future Denise Thal wants to see is one without construction on the Southfield Freeway.

Thal, chief financial officer and vice president of operations at The Henry Ford and Greenfield Village, feared road construction and the gloomy spring weather would hurt attendance at the Dearborn museum complex. Instead, the village, museum and Ford Rouge Plant tours are all ahead of last year, she reported. Only attendance at the IMAX movie theater is down because of a lack of big films.

“To be honest, it could have been a lot worse,” Thal said. “But any day during the summer you can go to the parking lot and see licenses from all over the country.”

Museum renovations prompted a special offer that might reduce income even though attendance is up, Thal noted. And one of The Henry Ford’s biggest events of the summer — putting the original Emancipation Proclamation on display for 36 hours — was free, as part of recognizing the 150th anniversary of the Civil War.

“We had more than 20,000 people here for that,” Thal said. “It counts as visitor traffic but it doesn’t do anything directly for revenue.”

Attendance also was booming at the tip of the state’s thumb two weeks ago at the 13th Cheeseburger in Caseville festival, which ran Aug. 12-21.

“That town is just swamped with people and so is the region,” said Sue Bila, executive director of the Michigan Festivals & Events Association. She heard reports that 50,000 people attended and hotels were filled for 25-30 miles outside of town.

“It’s a Jimmy Buffett theme and the town is all decked out,” Bila said. “You’d think you were in the Florida Keys.”

The state’s many other festivals and celebrations also had a good summer, she said, after some events were canceled a few years ago during the onset of the recession. Since then, local governments, chambers of commerce, downtown development associations, sponsors and other boosters have come together to support and bring back events, she said. More festivals also lure families looking for fun with added free events.

“I think it’s people wanting to celebrate,” Bila said. “They want to have good times and they’re finding them at the festivals. The music is big, parades are big, and so are microbrews and the new wine festivals.”

But just because summer’s over doesn’t mean the fun — or the funds — will end. As soon as Labor Day tourists are back home, the state’s hotels, tourist towns and resorts will start readying for the fall color season.

“We’re coming to the best season — the color,” said Jessica Lukomski, general manager of the Traverse Bayshore Resort in Traverse City. “My all-time favorite is fall.”