Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Economic Development Tourism topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Council adopts Experience Burnsville 2025 plan and balanced budget
Summary
The Burnsville City Council approved Experience Burnsville’s 2025 strategic plan and budget as part of the consent agenda after a presentation on the organization’s marketing activity, visitor data and conservative budgeting strategy.
Experience Burnsville presented its 2024 accomplishments and a 2025 strategic plan to the Burnsville City Council, and the council approved the organization’s 2025 budget and strategic plan as part of the consent agenda.
Amy Burrell, executive director of Experience Burnsville, told the council the organization — Burnsville’s destination marketing organization — launched a redesigned website, increased visitor engagement and invested in visitor-data tools to refine marketing. "We are the destination marketing organization for the city of Burnsville," Burrell said, and later said, "we do have a balanced budget." The presentation said Experience Burnsville is funded almost entirely through the local option lodging tax paid by overnight guests.
Burrell outlined 2024 activities including four commercial photo shoots, three new promotional videos, use of Zartico visitor-data products and a grant award from Explore Minnesota. She told the council Experience Burnsville represents five hotel/motel properties with about 850 rooms and cited visitor-spend metrics the organization purchases from Smith Travel/CoStar and Zartico: 58% of visitors went to attractions, 38% visited retail and 23% visited restaurants; reported average spending figures were included in the presentation materials. The board identified four priorities for 2025: market the destination, strengthen the organization, increase community engagement and pursue destination stewardship.
On budgeting, Burrell said the hospitality sector has been slow to rebound after the pandemic and the Twin Cities market saw a large influx of new hotel rooms before the Super Bowl. To respond, Experience Burnsville took a conservative approach to the 2025 budget and is using a portion of reserve funds to maintain marketing levels while remaining "nimble in our forecasting and the use of our funds throughout the year," Burrell said. She also said the organization decided to hold off on hiring additional part-time staff and will operate with one staff member for now.
Council members did not remove the item from the consent agenda. A motion to adopt the consent agenda, which included Experience Burnsville’s budget and strategic plan, carried by voice vote. No roll-call vote or individual tallies were recorded in the meeting minutes.
The council presentation materials and Burrell’s slide deck indicated Experience Burnsville will continue to measure key performance indicators such as impressions, click-through rate, cost per click, conversions and newsletter signups.
Looking ahead, Burrell said the organization will continue data investments and partner outreach to grow Burnsville’s role as a regional drive-market destination; council members indicated they will monitor outcomes through routine reporting and meeting minutes.
