Caitlin Clark, gymnastics trials, playoff hopes: What created the rise in Minneapolis tourism in 2024
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Charles Barkley had a confession to make on national television.
“I have not been to Minnesota in probably 20 years,” he told Anthony Edwards after the Minnesota Timberwolves clinched a spot in the NBA’s Western Conference Finals earlier this year.
Edward’s off-the-cuff reply was curt, quotable and an instant hit with pretty much everyone.
“Bring ya ass.”
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Barkley, a former NBA player and TNT sports analyst, seemed to be a rarity in 2024: someone who didn’t really seem to want to come to Minnesota’s largest city, but showed up anyway.
Minneapolis boasted more visitors in 2024 — as measured by hotel rooms sold — than in any year since 2019. Hotels both big and small sold more than 2 million rooms this year, according to Meet Minneapolis, the city’s convention and visitors association.
“2024 continued an upward trend that we’ve been seeing since the pandemic,” said Kevin Kurtt of Meet Minneapolis.
The boost also helped the city’s bottom line. Minneapolis is expected to take in about $12.8 million from the 15 percent sales tax on hotel rooms, an increase from $10.6 million in hotel tax revenue in 2023.
Hotel occupancy was at its peak during the week of March 3-9 when nearly 83 percent of rooms were booked, the highest occupancy rate in five years. That March week featured two big events: the American Physical Society March Meeting and the Big Ten women's basketball tournament at Target Center. Local hotels sold 59,590 rooms that week.
The basketball tourney featured Caitlin Clark, AP Female Athlete of the Year, a sharpshooting point guard with the WNBA’s Indiana Fever who played for Iowa at the time.
“She helped bring a lot of Iowa fans to Minneapolis,” Kurtt said. “And hey, we’ll take people from anywhere.”
Clark was far from the only female athlete to draw people to Minneapolis. Simone Biles and St. Paul’s Suni Lee attracted crowds for the U.S. Olympics team trials, Napheesa Collier led the Minnesota Lynx to the WNBA Finals and Minnesota’s Jessie Diggins participated in the Stifel Loppet Cup at Theodore Wirth Park, just north of downtown.
While the Lynx occasionally filled Target Center and about 40,000 ski fanatics showed up for the Loppet, women’s gymnastics was by far the biggest draw, attracting about 200,000 people to Target Center and downtown Minneapolis for what promoters dubbed “Gymnastics City USA.”
“It showed we could do big events well,” Kurtt said.
Sports was far from the only draw. The most popular special events were the Twin Cities Auto Show (49,500), Minneapolis Home & Garden Show (36,415), Twin Cities Con (35,110), Minneapolis Boat Show (26,130) and The Ultimate RV Show (21,840).
Big conventions also boosted hotel occupancy rates and sales at local restaurants. The biggest in 2024: Herbalife International of America (18,000), American Physical Society (12,785), Minnesota Music Educators Association (12,600), American Public Health Association (10,450), American Clean Power Association (7,440) and GALA Choruses (7,000).
With the decline of people working in downtown offices, many businesses are more reliant on sales from out-of-town visitors. Candyland, a local seller of popcorn and chocolates, has been tucked into a small retail space next to the Dayton’s parking ramp on Seventh Street since 1985. Owner Brenda Lamb says sales popped up in 2024.
“At times we’ve been up 20 to 25 percent,” Lamb said. “It’s been a consistent rise.”
But recent years haven’t been so bright. Lamb shuttered her LaSalle Court site in 2020, citing difficulty hiring workers, the city’s minimum wage standards and lack of workers downtown. Visitors staying at nearby Marriott City Center and Royal Sonesta hotels are frequent customers, she said.
“We’re hoping this will continue and we’ll be back to normal someday,” Lamb said.
The owner of another local business — Sam Turner of Nicollet Diner — reports seeing customer spikes during big events in Minneapolis. Located at 13th and Nicollet Avenues on the south end of Nicollet Mall, the ‘50s style diner specializes in breakfast, hamburgers and milkshakes.
During the Big Ten women’s basketball tourney week of March 3-9, Nicollet Diner sales jumped 24 percent compared to the same week a year earlier. But overall, sales slumped by 13 percent in 2024.
“This is the first year sales haven’t grown,” Turner said. “It’s because there are no downtown workers.”
Turner would like to see private-sector and government office workers return to their downtown cubicles, which hasn’t happened in a big way yet. Convention business is nice, but it’s difficult to plan for.
“How do you staff a restaurant when sales randomly double one week?” he asked.
So what’s on tap for 2025?
“We don’t have a marquee sporting event, especially in those prime visiting months that we have had the past couple of years,” Kurtt said. “We do have all the bread-and-butter conventions.”
Among the eclectic mix of conventions coming to town are meetings of music educators, OB/GYN doctors, optometrists, science teachers and cannabis enthusiasts. The marquee sporting event arrives Dec. 26: The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) World Junior Hockey Championship will be played at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul and 3M Arena at Mariucci on the University of Minnesota campus in Minneapolis.
“It’s the best under 20 hockey players in the world,” Kurtt said.
And a very big deal. The tournament is two weeks long, attracts hockey fans from around the world and is likely to fill up hotels in Minneapolis and St. Paul.
Other possible bumps: AC/DC and Kendrick Lamar headline shows at U.S. Bank Stadium in April, the Vikings, Wolves and Lynx could make big playoff pushes, and who knows — there might be another surprise tourism gift, like the one Edwards gave to Minneapolis on national television.
“That was a lot of fun,” Kurtt said. “It was very unexpected.”