FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MINNEAPOLIS HOTEL OCCUPANCY 72 PERCENT FOR 2013, BACK TO PRE-RECESSION LEVEL

MINNEAPOLIS) FEB. 19, 2014 Meet Minneapolis, Convention and Visitors Association, announced that the annual hotel occupancy for the city of Minneapolis has reached a pre-recession level of 72 percent for the year of 2013. The last time the annual hotel occupancy was above 70 percent was 2007; the last time it was 72 percent was in 2005.

Data back to 1999 showed that Minneapolis annual hotel occupancy has hit the 72 percent mark only twice. The low of 59 percent in 2009 was at the height of the recession. Levels above 70 percent signal a driver for new hotel development, as is generally recognized by the industry.

We believe the momentum of the 2014 events coming to Minneapolis will drive the 2014 annual occupancy level to 73 percent, said Melvin Tennant, CAE, president and CEO, Meet Minneapolis. Our bookings suggest 685,000 attendees at 2014 events on the books currently, but we know we will add additional events throughout the year that will increase that estimate. This should be a banner year for Minneapolis meetings and events.

Locally, Minneapolis is showing the best results in the state of Minnesota for 2013 with Bloomington landing on 70 percent and Saint Paul at 63 percent annual occupancy. The competitive set that Minneapolis competes with for most meetings and events shows Minneapolis is a leader in hotel occupancy with Indianapolis at 70 percent, Chicago at 75 percent, Denver at 72 percent, Dallas at 63 percent and New Orleans at 70 percent for 2013.

Minneapolis welcomes 326 conventions and other events in 2014, including major events like the National Collegiate Hockey Conference Championships March 19-22, the USA Volleyball Girls Junior National Championships June 19 July 6, the Major League Baseball All-Star Game the week of July 15, Shriners International Imperial Session July 6-10 and Meeting Professionals International Aug. 3-5.

ABOUT MEET MINNEAPOLIS

Meet Minneapolis is a private, not-for-profit, member-based association. It actively promotes and sells the Minneapolis area as a destination for conventions and meetings, works to maximize the visitor experience and markets the city as a desirable tourist destination to maximize the economic benefit of the greater Minneapolis area.

Meet Minneapolis is accredited by the Destination Marketing Accreditation Program (DMAP) of the Destination Marketing Association International.

Find out more:

Online: www.minneapolis.org [http://www.minneapolis.org] and http://go.minneapolis.org [http://go.minneapolis.org]

On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/meetminneapolis?ref=ts [http://www.facebook.com/meetminneapolis?ref=ts]

On Twitter: http://twitter.com/meetminneapolis [http://twitter.com/meetminneapolis]

On Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/meetminneapolis/ [http://pinterest.com/meetminneapolis/]

_ _

_MEDIA CONTACT_

Kristen Montag, media communication manager, 612.767.8038, kristenm@minneapolis.org [kristenm@minneapolis.org], Minneapolis_PR [http://goo.gl/M48J8] on Twitter.

_ _

###