Skip to main content

Boreal Community Media

Tourist Spending Up in Duluth in 2019, But Only by 2%

Feb 09, 2020 07:49AM ● By Editor

Businesses were relieved the numbers came in strong enough to meet the city's budget projections, but hoped for a healthier number. | WDIO-TV

From WDIO-TV - February 8, 2020


According to tax data released earlier this week, tourist spending in Duluth increased by 2% in 2019. Although this brings proceeds to a new high, the DNT reports that industry insiders hoped for a higher number.

Duluth's total in tourism taxes for hotels, motels, restaurants and bars in 2019 was $12 million. The DNT say that this is 2% or roughly $243,000 more than 2018.

Anna Tanski, executive director of Visit Duluth told the DNT that businesses were relieved the numbers came in strong enough to meet the city's budget projections, but hoped for a healthier number.

According to the DNT, in years when Duluth's tourism tax collections have fallen short of projections, businesses have encountered financial hardships.

In order to prevent this, the DNT says Mayor Emily Larson has made a practice in recent years of building a tousism tax fund budget based on the expectation that collections will remain stable with no dramatic growth. Additionally, businesses and Visit Duluth are working to keep tourism up.

Duluth's chief financial officer, Wayne Parson told the DNT that 2019 was a tough year for a variety of reasons including the Lake Walk being damaged, the William A Irvin being out of commission for some time and the back to back snow storms in November that led to little to no travel for anyone.


To read the original article and see related reporting, follow this link to the WDIO-TV website.  https://www.wdio.com/duluth-minnesota-news/tourist-spending-duluth-/5638012/?cat=10335