Minnesota makes 'historic investment' with $25M to market state to tourists, new residents

Ads selling Americans on a move to Minnesota will launch in March across the country in the state's first-ever national brand campaign to inspire people to move to the Land of 10,000 Lakes.

The new $2 million campaign is part of a "historic investment" in state funding to market to both tourists and prospective new residents. Last year, the Legislature approved more than $25 million in new funding for Explore Minnesota, the state's tourism arm, over the next two years, the first time its budget has increased in more than a decade.

"Minnesota needed to have a larger voice in the conversation around the country about what is unique to us and what we have to offer," Explore Minnesota Executive Director Lauren Bennett McGinty said. "We were really able to make a case that now is the time to invest in talking about Minnesota on a bigger scale."

The legislation allows Explore Minnesota to bolster national ad campaigns in its bid to elevate the state as a top-tier destination. But the funding also broadened Explore Minnesota's mission to go beyond travel, aiming to expand the state's workforce. To do that, the Legislature approved $11 million to launch Explore Minnesota for Business, a new division to attract new residents.

That will help Minnesota keep up with neighboring states and Midwest destinations, Bennett McGinty said, citing Michigan's new $20 million marketing campaign to attract new residents. But the effort is also needed to fill critical jobs. Minnesota's 3.1% unemployment rate — lower than the national rate — means the state has more job openings than workers.

Boosting marketing for tourism and attracting new residents go hand in hand, since visitors to Minnesota are more likely to consider moving to the state, which the industry dubs the "halo effect."

"Tourism really acts as the front door to economic development," Bennett McGinty said.

A new tourism campaign will also launch in March with digital, TV and radio ads featuring influencers — from food to fishing enthusiasts — experiencing Minnesota for the first time in documentary-style ads targeting communities from Chicago and Kansas City to Denver and St. Louis.

"We're going to be kind of blasting the whole country with messages about Minnesota," Bennett McGinty said.

A year-round destination

Bennett McGinty has led Explore Minnesota since 2021 after heading up the Minnesota Craft Brewers Guild. She's aiming to change national perceptions about Minnesota and bolster travel in every season.

"The No. 1 goal and vision is to become a top 10 destination for year-round travel," she said.

Last year's legislation bumped up Explore Minnesota's annual budget by nearly $4 million to $18.3 million, moving it up from ranking toward the end in a list of states' tourism budgets to the middle of the pack, Bennett McGinty said.

"We had a lot of catching up to do," she added.

The new dollars will help Explore Minnesota resume international marketing after pausing it during the pandemic, as well as rebuild its staffing closer to pre-pandemic levels of about 50 employees. That means hiring a first-ever tribal liaison to boost tourism to tribal nations and a new deputy director of outdoor recreation to team up with other agencies to coordinate promoting outdoor recreation in Minnesota.

"We're really stepping into some new territory and hoping that these programs are things that are much more future-focused and support kind of a new wave of both tourism and economic development in the state," Bennett McGinty said.

Explore Minnesota also got one-time funding of $5.5 million in 2024 and again in 2025 to support new initiatives, including hosting the U.S. Gymnastic Trials this summer, one of the most anticipated events ahead of the Summer Olympics in Paris. Another $2.2 million will go to the state's 11 tribal nations in first-ever tribal grants. The rest of the money will go to local tourism organizations, new marketing efforts to underrepresented communities and multicultural festivals.

In southern Minnesota, Experience Rochester received a $40,000 reimbursement, which will go toward boosting marketing, registering for trade shows and other measures. It will help the organization rebuild as tourism rebounds post-pandemic, spokesman Bill Von Bank said.

"Tourism is the purest form of economic development," he said, adding that the increase in lodging taxes show that the number of visitors to Rochester has increased this year, returning to pre-pandemic levels.

In Duluth, tourism has bounced back, but not fully to pre-pandemic numbers, said Daniele Villa at Visit Duluth. Explore Minnesota's $15,000 grant helped the organization boost marketing and print visitor guides. Like Explore Minnesota, Visit Duluth is trying to draw more year-round travel through conventions and business trips to bring more visitors in winter.

"We need to keep pushing the destination," Villa said.

Tourism slowly recovers from pandemic

Minnesota's leisure and hospitality sector makes up the fourth largest industry in the state, with about 250,000 employees staffing everything from lakeside resorts and downtown hotels to restaurants, museums and theaters.

The COVID-19 pandemic devastated the sector, which lost $14 billion and saw its workforce shrink by 23,000 workers compared to 2019. That's resulted in widespread staffing shortages.

But there are some signs of a recovery. Average monthly hotel occupancy rates bounced back to 55% in 2022, up from 36% in 2020, though still below 2019′s rate and still lagging behind U.S. and other metro areas' hotel indicators. The number of passengers traveling through Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport increased to 31 million in 2022, up from less than 15 million in 2020 but still below the nearly 40 million travelers at MSP in 2019.

In 2022, the state recorded 77 million visitors — finally rebounding to the same number as 2019. Those visitors generated more than $13 billion in economic impact.

It's too early to release 2023 data, but an Explore Minnesota survey last summer found that most tourism and hospitality businesses reported being financially stable or growing.

"If you look at different parts of the state, tourism is back, it's booming ... and then other parts are still coming back," Bennett McGinty said. "I think we're going to see those numbers bounce back. We're working really hard to get there."