Despite success, Duluth mayor wants to review out-of-town tourism partnership

DULUTH — Mayor Roger Reinert said he wasn’t sold on keeping the city’s out-of-town marketing firm after its contract expires at the end of the year, announcing a potential change Wednesday to a controversial decision made by former Mayor Emily Larson.

Larson, intending to expand the city’s reach, recommended Edina-based Bellmont Partners in 2021 to take over tourism marketing from the city’s long-standing convention and visitors bureau, Visit Duluth. The City Council selected Bellmont for a $1.8 million contract, and Visit Duluth accepted a smaller slice of the work after steering the city’s marketing since the 1930s.

Tourism in Duluth, a city of about 87,000, is a nearly $1 billion industry.

In the past couple of years, tourism tax revenue in Duluth has seen significant growth even while factoring in inflation, reaching a record high of nearly $15 million in 2023. It was up nearly 7% from the previous year and nearly 20% from 2019, the year before the COVID-19 pandemic began. Hotel occupancy last year was also higher than the state average.

Reinert said Wednesday that the city has many talented creative people to do the work and he hopes to end up with more tourism tax revenue staying in Duluth.

“I fundamentally believe — and I said this over and over again during the campaign and so walking that talk here today — that it’s hard to tell an authentic Duluth story if you’re not a Duluthian,” he said at a news conference inside City Hall.

Karen Pionk will helm a newly formed working group that will review the contract with Bellmont, a public relations firm, and its partner, advertising agency Lawrence & Schiller. It will also analyze the city’s proposal request for tourism marketing. Pionk is general manager of the Sheraton Duluth Hotel and a board member of Visit Duluth.

Tourism is one of Duluth’s economic engines, Pionk said, and reviewing the past few years is important to ensure tourism revenue is spent in a way that benefits the city. She doesn’t discredit Bellmont’s work, she said, but she agrees with Reinert that a local perspective is important.

Reinert said the existing setup may remain at the end of the year, but with the change in city leadership he wanted the chance to examine it. He put together a similar group to look at the city’s 2020 decision to close the Lester Park Golf Course.

Unlike the previous process that resulted in Bellmont’s selection, Reinert said he wouldn’t have other advertising agencies review proposals to avoid conflicts of interest. However, one of his working group’s members is Anna Tanski, who was CEO of Visit Duluth in 2021.

More than 20 Duluth neighborhoods experienced growth in visits from tourists in 2023, said Tricia Hobbs, the city’s economic developer, who is focused on tourism.

Visit Duluth under Bellmont is data-driven, representatives have said, and uses a mix of social, paid and “earned” media, TV spots and a website in its efforts. Its 2022 marketing campaign gave the city a new slogan and logo, and the city recently won an award from the state’s Explore Minnesota agency for a campaign that created a “welcoming experience” for visitors.