North suburbs seek a new way to attract tourist dollars

Shoreview, Coon Rapids would have the most representation on the board of a new tourism bureau.

By ALLIE SHAH, Star Tribune

Last update: October 7, 2009 - 10:58 PM

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The creation of a new convention and visitors bureau for north metro cities moved closer to reality this week, with the Shoreview and Coon Rapids city councils approving an agreement with the new group.

Dubbed Minnesota Metro North Tourism, the new entity is on track to open in January and will represent seven cities. In addition to Coon Rapids and Shoreview, they are Anoka, Blaine, Fridley, Ham Lake and Mounds View. New Brighton and Lino Lakes also may join the coalition.

The north metro cities have been represented by Visit Minneapolis North (VMN), but starting last year, they began giving notice that they wanted to opt out of the agreements.

Shoreview City Manager Terry Schwerm said area hotel owners came to city officials concerned that the VMN's marketing was too focused on shopping and convention opportunities in cities west of the Mississippi River.

The northeastern cities wanted to have a convention and visitors bureau that tapped their region's potential for sports tourism. Blaine is home to the National Sports Center and the TPC Twin Cities golf course.

"In Coon Rapids, we weren't getting any attention at all," said Matt Fulton, that city's manager. "We're one of the largest contributors to the VMN, but we weren't getting our money's worth, so we wanted to do something different."

Convention and visitors bureaus, or CVBs, as they're sometimes called, are used to promote an area to prospective tourists and have become popular with cities all over the metro area.

The new Minnesota Metro North bureau, when it opens, will be funded by the same 3 percent lodging tax that has supported Visit Minneapolis North.

Plan moves ahead

In the meantime, city leaders for the seven north metro suburbs have been approving the necessary paperwork to join the new bureau and also appointing representatives to the Minnesota Metro North Tourism board of directors.

Shoreview and Coon Rapids will have the most representatives -- four board members -- because both cities generate the most in revenue from the lodging tax.

The 15-member board will be made up of city staff, city council members, representatives from local hotels and several at-large members.

Having a sports-centered tourism bureau bodes well for the National Sports Center.

"We like to have a hospitality partner," said John Connelly, director of sales and development for the National Sports Center in Blaine. "We can put on the greatest event, but hospitality is a big component of why people want to come back to a place."

Sporting venues and events can have a huge impact on tourism, he suggested.

"If there's an economist who wanted to do a case study on the effect of sports tourism on a community, you need only look at what's happened over the last five days in the Twin Cities," he said. Because of the Gophers-Badgers football game, the Vikings-Green Bay showdown and the Minnesota Twins division title run, the Twin Cities drew tens of thousands of out-of-town visitors.

Allie Shah • 612-673-4488

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