The City Council met on Monday, March 9, 2026, at 6:00 PM in the Council Chambers. The meeting included a presentation from Visit Duluth and Madden Media on tourism marketing, extensive public comment on multiple issues, and a lengthy debate on amendments to the council's standing rules. The meeting concluded after 10:00 PM following the adoption of several resolutions and the first reading of two ordinances.
And if you want to let us know what your name is, this is Visit Duluth. Yep. I'm Hailey Headstrom, executive director at Visit Duluth. You can go ahead and start the day. Thank you for being here today. Yeah, of course. Thank you so much for having us. Um tonight I'm gonna walk through. Okay, this was working. Hold on. Okay. Tonight I'm gonna walk through these topics in three parts. First, I'll go over over some updates uh with Visit Duluth as an organization. Second, I'll review the discretionary tourism tax process and how those funds are evaluated and allocated. And finally, we'll go over an update on the mandated destination master plan, which will help us guide Duluth's visitor economy moving forward. So I like to start every presentation that I have with kind of a destination marketing organization, Visit Duluth 101. So I'll ask you, are you using this slides or the one that you have in this in your right hand is gonna be Nick Cusick from Madden right after me? I'm only doing half of the presentation. That's what I'm on right now. Thank you. Yep. Appreciate it. Yeah, of course. Uh so first is our marketing and strategy. We really work to promote Duluth to potential visitors uh coming from 50 miles away and positioning the city as a year-round destination. Second, we work on meetings and convention sales. So that's where we attract conferences, meetings, and group travel. That's again driving that overnight visitors and economic activity in our community. Third is our partnerships and collaboration. This is where we really bring value to our tourism industry members. So it's businesses, attractions, and community organizations. Tourism is really a part of an ecosystem here in Duluth, and our marketing supports businesses in their own campaigns as well. And fourth, of course, our visitor center and information services. So we're helping travelers not only plan their visit, but helping them learn about what's in Duluth, that in-person marketing that happens at our visitor center, which is currently located at Gramma's in Canal Park. So really together, these efforts holistically support the broader tourism tourism economy and the businesses that benefit from those that spending. So over the past year, um I am new to this role. I started late August 2025, but there have been several important organizational developments. So first, uh we reached an agreement between the city of Duluth, which was approved by council in March of 2025. This agreement formalizes the work we do as a destination management organization or DMO, uh, that is the role's official DMO and includes administration of the discretionary tourism tax dollars, which was $695,000 for this year. Second, uh tourism marketing responsibility transitioned fully back to Visit Duluth, so allowing our team to really strategically lead implementation for destination marketing uh in conjunction with Madden Media, who you'll hear from Nick a little bit later. So we've also realigned our internal structure and staffing, which will better support um our marketing sales and partnership initiatives. And finally, we've really worked hard um to expand industry collaboration, increasing coordination with tourism partners and regional organizations that drive visitation to Duluth. So as you know, tourism plays an important role in our economy. So tourism tax, which is generated through lodging and food and beverage taxes are largely paid by visitors and then reinvested back into tourism-related initiatives that support the local economy. Those investments help those attract those visitors from outside our region, which then drives that spending. And of course, it also supports local businesses, jobs, and economic activity across the community that works to improve the quality of life for our residents. And as a DMO, with this discretionary funding, our tourism tax investments generally fall into three categories. So we have the events and festivals, those are things that are bringing many people into Duluth, marketing initiatives and programs, and then our visitor guide, which is one of the biggest ways that we market to people coming from outside of Duluth. So all of these efforts, again, we're driving visitation. There's a return on investment.