The annual Explore Minnesota Tourism Conference last week brought together hundreds of Minnesota tourism industry partners and help raise awareness of Minnesota's continued growth as a travel destination, for both domestic and international visitors.
Conference highlights included: remarks from Gov. Mark Dayton; future plans for the popular #OnlyinMN travel marketing campaign; Explore Minnesota's debut Super Bowl commercial; and tools and tactics for an industry that generates $13 billion in sales for Minnesota annually.
This year's lineup of speakers, engaging breakout sessions and networking opportunities are designed to inspire and teach attendees how to effectively market Minnesota as a one-of-a-kind travel destination.
Conference speakers included: Dayton; Katie Dennis of U.S. Travel Association, to share best travel marketing practices; Jason DeRusha, anchor, WCCO-TV, and Kerri Westenberg, travel editor, Star Tribune to offer media relations tips and tricks; John Edman, director, Explore Minnesota; and Dr. Justin Laborde, The Futures Company, to discuss consumer travel spending. Sessions highlighted travel marketing, public relations, shared travel services, digital trends, creative strategies, and opportunities for 2015.
#OnlyinMN campaign proves successful
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Explore Minnesota will highlight the largest travel marketing effort in the state's history, a campaign themed "Only in Minnesota," which launched in spring 2014 to promote Minnesota's unique travel experiences, activities and attractions. The #OnlyinMN campaign and accompanying hashtag is leveraged across traditional and new media, including TV and radio spots, out-of-home, digital advertising and social media, to engage potential travelers and Minnesota tourism industry stakeholders in an ongoing conversation.
Preliminary research indicates the spring/summer campaign alone generated 3.12 million trips that would not otherwise have taken place, resulting in $320.2 million in visitor spending and $29.7 million in state and local taxes. In addition, the #OnlyinMN hashtag has been used more than 65,000 times across all social media channels.
"The Minnesota travel and tourism landscape has never been more exciting, or more rapidly changing," Edman said in a news release. "Minnesota is a premier travel destination, and the annual tourism conference is an opportunity to stay on top of the hottest industry trends, network with peers and get fresh ideas to market #OnlyinMN experiences."
The annual tourism conference draws more than 300 participants from around the state, including representatives of convention and visitors bureaus and other tourism promotion organizations; hotels, resorts and campgrounds; and a variety of attractions, such as museums, zoos, malls and historic sites.
The conference was at the Saint Paul RiverCentre.
