VisitWinona.com
Annual+ Report JANUARY 2020 – JULY 2021
RUGGEDLY OUTDOORSY.
UNEXPECTEDLY COSMOPOLITAN.
INCREDIBLY ENTERTAINING.
Visit Winona’s mission is to market and promote the Winona area as a year-round travel destination. 2
From the Executive Director - Pat Mutter 2020 was a year unlike any other due to COVID-19, a pandemic that changed the world and brought our lives to a standstill. We had no idea in March 2020 when the Governor called for stay-home orders that the tourism & hospitality sector would continue to be one of the hardest hit industries more than a year later; that restaurants, attractions, and events and festivals would be closed or halted; and our lives would revolve around virtual meetings and safety protocols. Like most businesses, Visit Winona pivoted, and adapted, and we were extremely grateful to have reserve funds to fall back on. This reserve is specifically for such unexpected and devastating times and it is crucial for us to grow and maintain those funds that will carry us through the financially unstable periods when lodging taxes plunged as a result of restrictions to travel and gatherings. The Visit Winona board made the difficult decision to furlough staff, close the Visitor Center, pause programs, spend on fixed items only, and maintain necessary activity for communication and collaboration, so that we could be in a strong position to act quickly when things returned to a new normal. I am thrilled to say that our cautious efforts paid off. With the assistance of PPP grants in early 2021, we were able to bring staff back to work full time in March. In April, the Winona Visitor
Center opened weekends only with the help of full-time staff, and continued that way for a few months. In July, we brought our part-time staff back and opened the Visitor Center seven days a week. Visitors and residents have been delighted to have this facility open again, and have been very supportive with their purchases and visits. With the help of Crisis Marketing Grants from Explore Minnesota Tourism, we were able to target to area markets and focus on online marketing, to keep Winona top-of-mind as a safe, drivable destination. Winona’s many outdoor recreational opportunities and activities that allow families and individuals to gather safely have been a huge draw for visitors. We remain optimistic that tourism will continue to ramp up with many of our summer festivals and events back in place, and look forward to Fall festivals and autumn colors which draw many visitors to our area. The pent-up demand has brought good attendance to the Winona area, and we encourage everyone to get vaccinated and take precautions to stay safe and protect others around us. Thank you for your continued encouragement and support of our organization and community. We can only get beyond these challenges if we do it together.
VISIT WINONA STAFF Pat Mutter | Executive Director Kate Carlson | Partnership Director Mary Farrell | Visitor Services Coordinator Cynthya Porter | Marketing Specialist
BOARD OF DIRECTORS Nichol Araya Espinoza Jenn Baechle John Casper Julie Heukeshoven Dani Hotzclaw
Brian Kugel Emily Kurash Casey Deb Nahrgang Lew Overhaug Ryan White
VISITOR CENTER STAFF Bob Conover, Joanne Riska, Vickie Roy
Visit Winona Offices 160 Johnson Street 507-452-0735
Winona Visitor Center 924 Huff Street 507-452-2278
WINONA VISITOR CENTER
4,517 visitors were welcomed at the Winona Visitor Center April 1 through July 31, 2021, including guests from Argentina, Egypt, Germany, Italy, Lebanon, Norway, Poland, Spain and Wales. 3
TOURISM & THE ECONOMY: BY THE NUMBERS Visit Winona is an industry partner of Explore Minnesota Tourism, the state’s tourism promotion agency, as well as active members of the Minnesota Association for Convention and Visitor Bureaus and the Southern Minnesota Tourism Association. SMTA operates using a collective annual investment from 36 Southern MN counties, including Winona County, to market tourism in our region of the state. See full Southern Minnesota hospitality numbers in top right corner below.
Explore Minnesota Tourism 2019 Travel and tourism is critical to Minnesota’s economy and its impact is shared statewide.
45.4 MILLION
$
1,794,019,809
%
State Sales Tax $
116,036,284
of private-sector employment
average daily sales at leisure & hospitality businesses
$
Gross Sales $
36,831 Jobs
More than
275,000
MILLION
Southern MN
Explore Minnesota Tourism 2020
Explore Minnesota Tourism 2020 In Minnesota, as our attractions, hotels, restaurants and more were unable to welcome visitors, our once thriving travel and tourism industry was no longer the significant economic driver it had been. Minnesota experienced severe losses in 2020.
44
Federal, state and local tax revenue declined by
36
%
4
2020
Minnesota Leisure and Hospitality Impact by Region:
hospitality & leisure jobs
in wages
Travel spending was down by
2019
$
180 to 1 $
state tourism marketing return on investment traveler spending
%
(Every $1 invested in state tourism marketing returns an estimated $180 in spending by travelers)
$
18 to 1 $
MILLION visitors served annually
state and local tax return on investment - traveler spending
(Every $1 invested in state tourism marketing returns an estimated $18 in state and local taxes)
We started off the year with a bang...
when Winona vaulted onto a national stage in January 2020 when Squarespace, a website- building company, unveiled a Super Bowl LIV ad that featured actress Winona Ryder building a webpage about her namesake city, and herself.
JANUARY - MARCH 2020: Recap of Winona Ryder/Super Bowl Coverage 87 news stories from Minneapolis Star Tribune to People Magazine to Adweek, and more than 50 unique news sources (including in England and Australia) took notice of this quirky, big-budget campaign featuring Ryder and the island city of Winona.
Squarespace commercials on YouTube featuring this campaign (five different products): • Views: 4,213,260 • Likes: 4,152 • Comments: 618
Super Bowl Viewership: 99 million Visit Winona Social Media Presence:
• Eleven Facebook posts between Jan. 23 and Feb. 18 • Reach: 432,500 people • Engagements (click, comment or share): 59,550 • Cost: $970 - $0.016 per engagement * We shared these posts in other social media platforms, but Facebook was our primary driver in this effort.
350+ “THIS IS WINONA” BOOKS SOLD: o This Is Winona is a photo book created using the photo archives of some of Winona’s most talented photographers. Some are professional, some are hobbyists, but all share a love for this community that makes them want to capture it in images. o The perfect keepsake gift that also helps Winona Any profits from the project will go to local causes and initiatives.
Stay tuned for more exciting details to be released soon regarding this initiative!
On the welcometotherestofwinona.com website:
• Unique visitors: 45,200 • Page Views: 58,600 • Book Pre-orders: 60 • Media references generated about our response: 28 mentions • Location of Website Visitors: 96 Countries • Sweepstakes Entries: 1,987 • Clicks to our visitwinona.com website: 520
Traffic to visitwinona.com Jan. 7 to Feb. 25:
• Total Visitors: 24,385 • New Visitors: 23,296 • Organic Google Searches: 12,627 • Location of Website Visitors: 86 Countries
5
VISIT WINONA MARKETING 2021 WINONA VISITOR GUIDE
In addition to leads from Explore MN Tourism, Visit Winona continued to send out Visitor Guides to individuals, groups, travel information centers, and area businesses. An addendum with revised business information and updated coupons was printed to be sent with the 2020 Guides for any inquiries starting mid-December 2020.
Printed & distributed
Fulfilled 3,541 leads from guides Explore Minnesota Tourism and 408 individual requests for april-july 2021. Visitor Guides from january Second print run of 12,000 guides 2020–July 2021. at no additional cost to our partners was delivered at the end of july 2021.
20,000
WEBSITE HIGHLIGHTS: VisitWinona.com July 2021: Hit a new record for monthly users of 18.2K! (July 7, 2015 – July 31, 2021)
The Visit Winona website boasted 31,000+ outbound clicks to partner pages from Spring 2020-Spring 2021.
Top visits include guests from the Twin Cities, La Crosse and Eau Claire, Chicago, and Milwaukee.
506,543 Total Page Views (Jan 2020-July 2021)
Jan 1, 2020-July 31, 2021 vs. Jan 1, 2019-July 31, 2020: (Super Bowl traffic included in both data sets) • +16.7% in users • +18.8% in new users • +8.17% in average time on page • +28.07% increase in Mobile Views
Visit Winona
is SOCIAL
Visit Winona boasts more than 24K followers on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Follow the fun and join in using:
#WinonaMN 6
VISIT WINONA MARKETING Winona COVID-related resources microsite launched November 2020 Visit Winona worked continuously with local businesses and officials to provide the information visitors needed while planning a trip to the area. From pages featuring local ordinances and community health resources to lodging, restaurant and event information Visit Winona collected details about the community that aided tourists in planning their stay.
April 1, 2021:
Google Destination Marketing Organization Program Visit Winona purchased a full Google Listing program and audit through Explore Minnesota Tourism in December 2020. Since then, Visit Winona staff has worked with 200+ regional businesses to claim, verify, and update listings and photos, including:
• 25 Partner Google Verification Codes Sent • 373 Google Listing Photos Uploaded • 1,296,318 Google Listing Photo Views • 57 Approved Google Listing Business Edits • 10 Google360 Partner Photos Uploaded
Minnesota Gators Campaign Tourism marketing took a bizarre twist on April Fool’s Day when Visit Winona unveiled a “Minnesota Gators” campaign touting the possibility to swim with American Alligators in Winona. Using an email blast and social media as a launchpad, the organization announced that a new Winona company called Minnesota Gators was offering gator experiences including everything from hand feeding, to swimming with the creatures. Clicks went to the spoof website www.mngators.com, where the fictitious company lauded its safety record of 62% and made hilarious claims about the experience. Photoshopped images of people hugging and swimming with alligators, fake reviews, and an absurd FAQ section along with real merchandise rounded out the completely farcical site that left few believing this was actually a thing. Clicks then led to a page on the Visit Winona website that pokes fun at the campaign and extols the reasons why people should check out Winona even if they can’t swim with alligators here. • Email open rate: 35% (two sends) • Email click-thru rate: 32% • MNgators.com website hits: 5,800+ • Visit Winona website hits: 1,100+ • Press release published by 122 news outlets • Major news coverage: The Travel Vertical – national newsletter for tourism marketers, Media Post, a national website/newsletter for marketing professionals, Winona Post. • Facebook reach: 30,000+ people, 8,600+ engagement
7
TOURISM IMPACT
in Winona.
GROUP TOURS: CASE STUDY Allied Tours: Norfolk, NE
38 guests
AmericInn: $1,666 Bloedow Bakery donuts: $61.30 Culvers of Winona: Guests paid individually Great River Shakespeare Festival: $600
MMAM: CASE STUDY July 1, 2019 to June 30, 2020
July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021
visitors were from outside of Winona County
visitors were from outside of Winona County
82.8
%
92.9
%
Ground Round Bar & Grill: $570 Watkins Museum and Tour: $1,750 Winona County Historical Society Guided City Tour: $228 Winona Tour Boat: $395
Total Group Tour Spend in Winona:
$5,270+
2020 Visit Winona Excellence in Partnership Award Visit Winona presented its 2020 Partnership Excellence Award to Blooming Grounds Coffee House and owner Amy Jo Marks, recognizing the establishment for its outstanding contributions to the community that impact visitors and residents through a virtual presentation and live video feed on the Visit Winona Facebook page October 29, 2020.
VisitWinona.com 8
THANK YOU for continuing to support local businesses. We are all Winona.
The downtown restaurant was one of the first to step up to the needs of the community early in the pandemic by offering free lunches to school-aged Winona children. Throughout 2020, Blooming Grounds pivoted in response to the challenging environment created by the pandemic, such as offering street entertainment and new services including cupcake and tulip deliveries and specialized pastry items in partnership with other area businesses and bakers. Blooming Grounds first opened in downtown Winona in 2003 and has partnered with Visit Winona for more than 15 years.