Visit Winona was honored with a Marketing Excellence Award at the 2017 Explore Minnesota Tourism Conference in St. Paul last week for its short film series “Why Everyone Loves Winona.” Competing against convention and visitor bureaus many times its size, Visit Winona received the award from Explore Minnesota Tourism – the state’s official tourism marketing organization – for creating the films to help the community rebrand itself as not just a beautiful city, but also an arts and recreation hub in the Midwest.
Visit Winona partnered with Emmy-Award-winning filmmaker Chris Newberry of Free Country Media for the project, which features five two-minute films using man-on-the-street-style interviews to illuminate various reasons why people love Winona. Arts and Recreation, Family Fun, and Girlfriend Getaways were the three films judges reviewed for the awards competition. The last two films in the series, Architecture and History and Dining and Nightlife, are set to be released by Visit Winona in March.
Explore Minnesota Tourism’s annual Excellence in Tourism awards program recognizes individuals, attractions, and destination management organizations for outstanding work marketing Minnesota as a destination. This is Visit Winona’s second Marketing Excellence Award, the first one coming from its successful social media campaign in 2013. For more information about Winona or to view the films, visit http://www.VisitWinona.com.
Statewide, tourism is a $14.4 billion industry that generates $930 million in state sales tax and more than a quarter of a million jobs. In Winona County, it is a $104 million industry employing 2,300 people and pumping $7 million into the state’s tax coffers. The mission of Visit Winona, which is funded by a nominal lodging tax levied at local hotels, is to promote Winona as a tourism destination. Research specific to Minnesota has found that for every $1 spent on advertising, $98 is generated in tourism spending.