Leisure, hospitality sector is Minnesota’s fourth largest industry in the state

By Tom Hintgen

Otter Tail County Correspondent

Minnesota’s leisure and hospitality sector makes up the fourth largest industry in the state, with about 250,000 employees staffing everything from lakeside resorts and hotels to restaurants, museums and theaters.

Last year the state legislature approved the first funding increase to Explore Minnesota in more than a decade. The funding will support new campaigns to market Minnesota to travelers and prospective residents. 

A new tourism campaign will launch in March 2024 with digital, TV and radio ads, as noted in a Jan. 30 story in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. 

  “We’re going to be blasting the whole country with messages about Minnesota,” said Explore Minnesota Executive Director Lauren McGinty.  “Ads will try to lure fishing enthusiasts, dining enthusiasts and everyone else.”

Otter Tail County commissioners, county resort owners and others hope to benefit from the new Explore Minnesota ad campaigns. County taxpayers help support the Otter Tail Lakes Country Association that is a regional non-profit marketing and economic development organization.

The Star Tribune learned from Explore Minnesota that the average monthly hotel occupancy rates bounced back from the pandemic in 2022, although still below the rate in 2019. Minnesota, in 2022, recorded 77 million visitors, finally rebounding to the same number as 2019. Those visitors generated more than $13 billion in economic impact.

It’s too early to release 2023 data, but an Explore Minnesota survey last summer found that most tourism and hospitality businesses reported being financially stable or growing.

“If you look at different parts of the state, tourism is not only back but it’s booming,” said McGinty. “Other parts are still coming back and we at Explore Minnesota believe we’re going to see those numbers bounce back as well. We’re working really hard to get there.”