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Visit Brainer previews 2026 budget, proposes rebrand to 'Visit Brainer Baxter'
Summary
Visit Brainer executive director Mary Divine Johnson reported about $300,000 in 2025 advertising, a preliminary 2026 budget near $500,000 (mostly lodging-tax funded), and plans to rebrand as "Visit Brainer Baxter," add visitor kiosks and expand digital tools.
Mary Divine Johnson, executive director of Visit Brainer, presented a review of 2025 activity and previewed priorities for 2026, including a proposed rebrand and technology investments.
Johnson said Visit Brainer spent about $300,000 on advertising and visitor services in 2025 and is preliminarily budgeting roughly $500,000 for 2026, with approximately $485,000 projected to come from lodging-tax receipts primarily collected in Baxter and about $20,000 from the city of Brainerd. She said the organization plans a rebrand to "Visit Brainer Baxter" to better reflect the regional market and intends to deploy digital kiosks at hotels and downtown, adopt an events-aggregation calendar, and shift more advertising dollars toward video.
Johnson described the visitor-services model: 95% of lodging-tax proceeds are remitted to the destination marketing organization by statute for promotion, and Visit Brainer keeps under 10% of its contract for operations while putting the majority into programmatic advertising. Council members asked about the lodging-tax geography and how staffing and non-tax revenues (gift shop, EDA contract) factor into the budget; Johnson said the organization runs a lean operation with three staff positions (one full time) and a small retail operation.
Council thanked Visit Brainer for outreach and marketing work; no formal council action was required on the presentation.
