The municipal administration proposes to modify the tourism marketing plan | The daily briefing

The mayor of Duluth has proposed a significant change in how the city markets its tourism assets, recommending that most work be contracted out to a decades-old partner and contracted out to an outside agency.

Citing the need to increase public accountability and raise expectations, Mayor Emily Larson said Tuesday that tourism taxes should be allocated to Bellmont Partners of Minneapolis rather than Visit Duluth. Over the past few years, Visit Duluth has received $2.2 million of those dollars for convention promotion, marketing and sales.

“I know this decision is new ground for Duluth and I recognize that this change from the norm is significant and needs attention. For 85 years we have had a single entity that has worked to meet the marketing and promotional needs for the community. Choosing a new approach isn’t about what was missing in the existing partnerships we had – it’s about what’s possible to elevate our brand, expand our audience, engage new voices from across the community, leverage of our investments and use the data to get us there. I have complete confidence that Bellmont can build the relationships necessary to be our trusted, creative and visionary promotional partner,” she said.

That doesn’t include promoting events and conventions, Larson later conceded during his Aug. 10 press conference. Visit Duluth was offered a contract to provide this service, she said. The Visit Duluth board of directors met late Tuesday to discuss the offer, worth $400,000. Paying members of the group were not allowed to participate in or listen to the online meeting.

“At this time, the Visit Duluth team and board are working hard to reach a decision regarding the proposal to manage the convention and sports sales effort on behalf of the city,” Anna Tanski wrote. , President and CEO of Visit Duluth. a statement prepared after the meeting. “We have requested additional information from Mayor Larson to help us through this process and ensure we are making an informed decision that produces a positive outcome for the city.”

The Visit Duluth Board of Directors will meet Thursday morning to further review the offer.

Minneapolis-based Bellmont will partner with Lawrence & Schiller of Sioux Falls, SD, to provide the services. Larson said the agency “has a proven approach to data-driven tourism and hospitality storytelling, a live dashboard of visitor interface, media reach and marketing accounting, a extensive target audience research and tangible, specific results Current and former clients include South Dakota Tourism, Uptown Art Fair, Mall of America, Explore Minnesota, and Public Art St. Paul.

The mayor, now halfway through her second term, said the longstanding process used to allocate tourism taxes immediately caught her attention when she was first elected.

“The allocations of these public funds have been determined in private meetings or direct requests to the mayor. The demands were then privately negotiated, compiled and presented in support of the council,” she said. “That’s it. No discussion of budget impacts or expectations of visitor numbers. No endorsement of what it means to receive or be part of a tourism industry. No affirmation of how the city or our residents are part of the tourist story.

But during Visit Duluth’s tenure, those tourism numbers — which are collected from food, drink and room sales by businesses in the tourism industry — have generally increased, raising the question of why a change is needed. Larson partially addressed this issue during a press conference.

“We must lead – for decades the city has not asserted its rightful place for fear of disruption and discomfort. We had let go and assigned other people to achieve in this area while maintaining direct relations with the tourism and hotel industry at a distance. I’m excited to tie these pieces together,” Larson said.

Twenty-eight entities submitted proposals to provide tourism promotion services. Of the five finalists, Larson said two were local businesses. She used the term “businesses” loosely. These two finalists were Visit Duluth and the DECC, which are not for-profit companies. None of the Duluth-based advertising and public relations firms qualified for the final selection process.