DULUTH – The city's marketing arm and convention center are considering a merger as both entities grapple with budget blows from the COVID-19 pandemic.
At a Wednesday board meeting for Visit Duluth, the nonprofit contracted by the city to handle tourism, officials said they were forming a group to discuss the possibility of combining with the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center (DECC).
Other Minnesota cities, including Minneapolis and St. Paul, already combine their convention centers and visitors bureaus. Noting this, Mayor Emily Larson said in an interview this month that many organizations are going to be exploring ways to economize as they budget for next year.
"This may be one of the things the pandemic brings out: How can we help find any efficiencies in how all of us are operating?" she said. "Now that we've seen how things can change, what is it that we can do to adapt ourselves proactively?"
Anna Tanski, president of Visit Duluth, said the organization will lay off seven employees by the end of the month, leaving three full-time staff members.
The nonprofit typically gets the bulk of its revenue — $2 million — from the city's tourism tax collections to handle marketing and advertising. Visit Duluth received one-third of that this year before Mayor Emily Larson told entities not to expect additional payments due to the city's tourism-related debt obligations.
"This will get us through the end of the year," Tanski told the Visit Duluth board.
Unlike other convention centers in the state, the DECC was given its authority by the Legislature in 1963. The DECC is statutorily allocated a portion of Duluth's tourism tax on lodging, which the city collects for it.