Minneapolis (June 29, 2021) – As the pandemic wanes in the United States, pent up travel demand is growing rapidly. Leisure and business travelers are asking: What’s open? What can I see and do? Meet Minneapolis, the city’s convention and visitors association, is answering those questions with the newly created Top 8 Reasons Why Minneapolis campaign.

The strategic marketing recovery plan aims to inspire meeting planners and attendees, sports events rights holders, leisure travelers, and group travelers to choose Minneapolis as their destination to visit or host a meeting or event – all with the goal of helping the tourism and hospitality industry – and its workers – recover in Minneapolis.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, lodging taxes collected by the city of Minneapolis in 2020 were below $3 million – down nearly 70% percent from the 2019 total of approximately $8.6 million. While travel is making a comeback, the tourism and hospitality industry in Minneapolis likely will not see a return to pre-pandemic levels of activity for some time.

The Top 8 Reasons Why Minneapolis campaign was launched in mid-June and will continue through Labor Day. In addition to the robust content on the Meet Minneapolis website (here and here), the $200,000 campaign includes digital, print, video and radio advertisements, and targeted social media posts.

The new marketing initiative features a set of landing pages and videos with custom Top 8 Reasons Why Minneapolis for specific target audiences:

• Top 8 Reasons Why Minneapolis Should Be Your Next Meeting Destination
• Top 8 Reasons Why the Minneapolis Convention Center is Ready to Host Your Next Event
• Top 8 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Miss Your Event in Minneapolis
• Top 8 Reasons Why Minneapolis Should Be on Your Summer List
• Top 8 Reasons Why Minneapolis is Ready to Host Your Group
  

“This new program is designed to confidently communicate that Minneapolis is open and ready to safely welcome visitors and events,” said Meet Minneapolis President & CEO Melvin Tennant. “With the total number of jobs in the Minneapolis hospitality industry dropping nearly 50% from 2019 to 2020, it was essential for us to create a strategic marketing recovery plan to attract visitors, drive hotel stays, and increase visitor spending at businesses throughout our city and region. If that happens, local workers and businesses benefit economically.”

“Even though we believe there are endless reasons to visit or host a meeting in Minneapolis, this campaign narrows in on the ‘Top 8 Reasons Why Minneapolis’ should be the destination of choice,” added Courtney S. Ries, SVP of Destination Branding and Strategy for Meet Minneapolis. “By targeting various segments of travelers, the campaign has the flexibility to share our destination’s story to meet their specific needs.”

An important aspect of the Top 8 Reasons Why Minneapolis campaign is Meet Minneapolis’ social justice core value of “A Community Leading the Path Forward.” That value is incorporated into the campaign and serves to recognize that, as the catalyst city for a nationwide movement in 2020, Meet Minneapolis stands in solidarity with our leaders from all backgrounds in recognizing the need to transform our city from the inside out to ensure that Minneapolis is both a safe and equitable place for everyone to live, work and visit.

Top 8 Reasons Why Minneapolis campaign partially grew out of last year’s We Need Us! initiative that was created to inspire local residents to safely support the wide array of local businesses that make Minneapolis a vibrant place to live and work.

More information on the Top 8 Reasons Why Minneapolis campaign can be found here and creative assets for the campaign can be found here.

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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 to the greater Minneapolis area. Meet Minneapolis is accredited by the Destination Marketing Accreditation Program (DMAP) of Destinations International.

CONNECT WITH US
Online: www.minneapolis.org
On Facebook: www.facebook.com/meetminneapolis
On Twitter: http://twitter.com/meetminneapolis On Instagram: www.instagram.com/meetminneapolis

MEDIA CONTACT
Kevin Kurtt, PR and Communications Manager, 612-767-8118, KevinK@minneapolis.org
Kathy McCarthy, PR and Communications Director, 612-767-8048, KathyM@minneapolis.org
Or email MeetMinneapolisPR@Minneapolis.org