Downtown revitalization is central to Meet Minneapolis’ new 10-year plan to make the city more appealing to visitors.
Meet Minneapolis, the city’s convention and visitors bureau, wants to overhaul the Minneapolis Convention Center and establish a 2% surcharge on hotel rooms, most of which are downtown, to help pay for tourism efforts. Meet Minneapolis also supports redeveloping the Mississippi Riverfront to better connect it to the rest of downtown, pedestrianizing Nicollet Mall, and standardizing skyway hours.
More than 900 stakeholders and community members helped inform the plan, titled Destination Minneapolis: Charting the Future of Minneapolis Tourism, which was unveiled last week during Meet Minneapolis’ annual meeting.
“This strategy provides a clear vision for how we can leverage the visitor economy to create jobs, drive investment, improve the quality of life for our residents and celebrate what makes our city so special,” Meet Minneapolis President and CEO Melvin Tennant said.
These are the plan’s five high-level strategic goals:
- Create a nationally competitive convention center district
- Develop new, and enhance existing, festivals and events year-round
- Establish Minneapolis as a national leader in equity and reconciliation
- Increase downtown vibrancy and expand mixed-use riverfront development
- Expand and diversify lifestyle experiences
Here are the six “big ideas” outlined to help advance the above goals:
- Establish Minneapolis as the #1 city for women’s sports
- Enhance Minneapolis’ nightlife scene to be a vibrant, thriving night economy
- Modernize the Minneapolis Convention Center to enhance the competitive advantage and create a signature convention center district
- Improve connections to the central riverfront near the Post Office site and the Upper Lock and Dam
- Embrace Minneapolis as a catalyst of the modern-day civil rights movement
- Develop an iconic event that showcases Minneapolis commitment to social justice
Meet Minneapolis’ new plan aligns with others including the Minneapolis Downtown Council and Downtown Improvement District’s 10-year plan, Mayor Jacob Frey’s Downtown Action Plan, and the Minneapolis Foundation’s Downtown Next report.
"As we compete for business, customers, entertainment and investment, we’re harnessing the power of tourism to drive growth,” said Frey, chair of Meet Minneapolis’ steering committee. “The initiatives in this plan do more than attract visitors – they fuel economic expansion, bring major events to our city, open new doors for local businesses and enhance the quality of life for all our residents.”
Meet Minneapolis envisions a "convention center district" with additional hotels, restaurants and retail, and entertainment within a six-block radius of the Minneapolis Convention Center.
In 2024, the Minneapolis Convention Center welcomed almost 720,000 visitors and generated $21.4 million in revenue, a 15% increase over 2023.
More than 2 million hotel rooms were filled in 2024 – the highest since 2019 – thanks in part to large events downtown, including the U.S. Olympic gymnastics trials, the men's and women's Big Ten basketball tournaments, and the Minnesota Lynx playoffs run.
Meet Minneapolis estimates that a 2% hotel room fee would generate $6 million to $7 million annually. Tennant said the money would be used for new tourism initiatives, like a marketing campaign in a city where Meet Minneapolis doesn't currently have a presence, or a new festival that would draw people to Minneapolis.
The Minneapolis City Council needs to sign off on a proposed tourism improvement district in order for that tax to go into effect.
Almost 700 people attended Meet Minneapolis’ annual meeting last Wednesday, when the plan was unveiled, at the Minneapolis Convention Center.
