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ROCHESTER — Minnesotans got their first look Tuesday at the state’s new ads touting tourism and migration to the Land of 10,000 Lakes starting in March. This is the largest national marketing campaign the state has ever undertaken.
Advertising for the new “Star of the North” campaign, aimed at attracting more visitors and new residents, will launch on March 4 in 22 states and Canada. Explore Minnesota, the state’s tourism arm, unveiled the ad to travel industry professionals at its annual conference in Rochester.
This is Explore Minnesota’s first time marketing outside of tourism, with digital, TV and radio ads targeting communities such as Seattle, Boston and Austin, Texas, to encourage Americans to consider moving to Minnesota. I hope that you will receive it. Other tourism ads will air primarily in the Midwest and cities like Denver and Dallas.
“Our campaign will showcase the best of our state,” said Lauren Bennett McGinty, executive director of Explore Minnesota. “Minnesota could be the next positive chapter in their journey.”
Efforts are needed to catch up with other states’ marketing efforts and fill critical positions, leaders say. Minnesota’s unemployment rate is 3.1%, which is lower than the national unemployment rate, meaning the state has more jobs than workers. Minnesota is also losing more residents than it is gaining.
“This campaign allows us to stand out,” Bennett McGinty said. “We want people across the country to know our secrets. … Life is better in Minnesota.”
The national advertising campaign is part of Explore Minnesota’s new initiative, thanks to more than $25 million in additional funding to the Minnesota Bureau over the next two years approved by the state Legislature last year, and the agency’s The budget increase is the largest in more than a decade. Investments so far.
Gov. Tim Walz said Minnesotans have long been humble and don’t brag about their state, but now is the time to tout its strengths. He and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan spoke to about 500 people at Tuesday’s meeting, the largest attendance in decades.
“Nothing drives me more crazy than seeing other states advertise here knowing that what we have here can compete anywhere,” Walz said. “We have to tell the story…this is where it’s supposed to be.”
This tourism ad features an influencer experiencing Minnesota for the first time in a documentary style ad. For example, a female South Carolina angler visits the headwaters of the Mississippi River, dines at St. Joseph’s Crew, and then catches walleye at Lake of the Woods. The Livability Campaign focuses on recent immigrants who have moved to Sartell, Minneapolis, and Duluth from other states such as Oregon and New York.
“Recruitment is very important,” said Bill von Bank of Experience Rochester. Visitor numbers to Rochester have increased this year and are approaching pre-pandemic levels. “Once you visit, you’ll probably move here. Every state wants that.”
$11 million of the new state funding for Explore Minnesota will start a new division called Explore Minnesota for Business that will focus on economic development. The first phase will focus on attracting residents, followed by campaigns to attract new businesses and to market university students to attend and stay after graduation. Minnesota loses more college students than it attracts.
Bennett-McGinty added that more than half of the states in the country have such livability campaigns.
“Until now, Minnesota has been too silent on this issue,” she said. “We’re not doing a good job of marketing what we have to offer to job seekers and business owners. But that’s changing.”
Most of the new funding, including funding for new economic development departments, is one-time funding over the past two years. Bennett McGinty said she will likely return to the state Capitol next year to ask lawmakers to continue funding.
“This is a long-term plan,” she said. “This is not a one-and-done thing. I hope people see an impact. I think people understand that we need workers.”
Walz said the state will continue to fund the agency’s operations.
Minnesota’s leisure and hospitality sector makes up the state’s fourth largest industry, employing approximately 250,000 people in resorts, hotels, restaurants, museums, and theaters. The coronavirus pandemic has hit the industry hard, with losses of $14 billion and headcount down 23,000 from 2019.
There are some signs of recovery. Average monthly hotel occupancy rates have rebounded from 36% in 2020 to 55% in 2022, but are still below 2019 occupancy rates and remain among the lowest in hotel metrics in the U.S. and other metropolitan areas. I’m behind. The number of passengers passing through Minneapolis-St. The situation is still out of reach.
In 2022, the state recorded 77 million visitors, eventually rebounding to the same number as 2019. These visitors generated more than $13 billion in economic impact for her. New data will be released in April.
Explore Minnesota is also rebuilding, returning to pre-pandemic levels of about 50 employees.
“While we still have a ways to go…2023 proves that travel is back,” Bennett McGinty said. “I hope there will be a strong brand in Minnesota that will be around for a long time.”
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