Spotlight On: Melvin Tennant, President & CEO, Meet Minneapolis, Kiwanis International, USA Gymnastics Olympic Trials
July 2024 — In an interview with Invest:, Melvin Tennant, president and CEO of Meet Minneapolis, spoke about returning to pre-pandemic levels in hospitality jobs, attracting new visitors through events and convention planning, and the importance of arts and culture to attracting new visitors. “We are the largest city in this region, and we have arts and culture, sports, and restaurants, so we are trying to leverage being that hub of activity in this region,” he said.
What are some of Meet Minneapolis’ great successes over the past year?
We have continued in our industry recovery. We are a tourism advocacy organization for the city. There have been significant increases in hotel occupancy and demand. It has brought the return of many hospitality jobs that support our industry. Pre-pandemic, we were at 36,000 jobs, and now we are about back to 32,000 jobs. Our industry is definitely seeing a great improvement. Another sign of our success in the community is that we have seen the return of every single international air route that we had previously. We now have two carriers servicing Dublin, Ireland – both Delta and Aer Lingus. This return of international air service speaks to the fact that our business community is improving.
What strategies or initiatives have successfully attracted visitors to the region?
We have found that as a city, it is important for us to show people what they can experience. We spend a lot of time re-introducing our leisure travelers, as well as meeting and event decision-makers, to the city. This happens through events like Connect Marketplace, a trade show where decision-makers of conventions and events come here to meet with suppliers. As a result of the August 2023 event, nearly 1,000 meeting and event planners came here to experience the city. Over 40% of them had never been here before, so we were successful in exposing a new audience to our destination. Surveying the attendees shows the success of bringing people here — planners were 40% more likely to have an event here after they came to visit Minneapolis. It reinforces the fact that people need to see the destination firsthand to really understand how many wonderful assets we have. We also did something similar with our regional leisure marketing and advertising campaign. We get about 75% of our leisure visitors from Minnesota and surrounding states, and this marketing campaign helped to re-introduce visitors to the city. We are the largest city in this region, and we have arts and culture, sports, and restaurants, so we are trying to leverage being that hub of activity in this region for visitors in our drive market.
How do you showcase the city’s cultural richness to domestic and international visitors?
This is integral to our messaging. Arts and culture are essential. We have several partnerships with organizations such as the Hennepin Theatre Trust. They operate several historical theaters in Minneapolis. We are really proud that this is the 40th anniversary of (the film) “Purple Rain,” which was filmed here by our hometown celebrity Prince. A new Broadway musical version of this iconic movie will have its pre-Broadway premiere in Minneapolis next year. There is a lot of investment in our cultural facilities, and Hennepin Theatre Trust attracts more than half a million visitors annually. Arts and culture are part of our DNA as a community and a major part of our lives. One weekend in 2023, we exceeded the hotel usage from the Super Bowl we hosted in 2018. We had our annual Pride festival, the Kiwanis International convention, and two nights of Taylor Swift concerts. That all happened in one weekend, and that showed the capacity of the city. Additionally, our dedicated regional sports commission, Minnesota Sports and Events, takes the lead on major events such as the USA Gymnastics Olympic Trials, which we hosted in June.
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What are some of the challenges and opportunities facing destination marketing organizations in today’s rapidly evolving tourism landscape?
We have to keep on top of the changing moods and desires of leisure travelers. There has been a lot of transformation over the last few years, so we must continually update our insights on traveler interests and intent to adjust our marketing campaigns to keep up with that. There is a lot of competition in the marketplace, and cities are making significant investments in travel and tourism assets. We are hopeful about new and exciting initiatives in the future that will keep us productive. We are in the midst of our master plan, which involves bringing together our stakeholders within our tourism ecosystem to gain consensus on major initiatives and programs we need to undertake to stay competitive over the next 30 years. We need to intentionally bring together the right players to make sound decisions.
What are some key partnerships or collaborations that can be leveraged to foster and enhance the city’s appeal?
We work closely with our airport authority, and that helps us to be a viable domestic and international destination. We have been able to secure major conventions such as Rotary International and Lions Club International by working with the local chapters. We work closely with our downtown council because downtown is the living room of the region, and we want it clean, green, and safe. We also work with our parks board and the authorities that manage our stadiums, convention centers, and public facilities. We have a hand-in-glove relationship with our key partners, and they understand the value of tourism and how we can sustain jobs in our community.
What is your outlook for Meet Minneapolis in the next few years? What are your top priorities?
We continue to adapt to new consumer wishes and desires. We have to keep our product fresh, and we need to encourage our visitors to stay longer. We are taking advantage of the concept of “bleisure” – combining business and leisure travel – so we are investing resources in that trend. We know that the demographics of our travelers are changing, but we have a robust diversity and equity effort to make ourselves known to all visitors regardless of background. Those are some of our priorities that we are continuing with, as well as keeping up with trends and improvements that other destinations are making because we don’t want to get left behind.
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