Can Minneapolis become the epicenter of women’s sports? That’s one of six ambitious goals that tourism nonprofit Meet Minneapolis hopes to achieve over the next decade.

At its annual meeting at the Minneapolis Convention Center on Wednesday, Meet Minneapolis unveiled a broad 10-year master plan for the city. Titled “Destination Minneapolis: Charting the Future of Minneapolis Tourism,” the plan came with five strategic goals and six “big ideas” intended to “uniquely position Minneapolis as a premier destination.”

“Tourism is not just about attracting visitors, it’s an economic lifeline,” said Meet Minneapolis CEO Melvin Tennant at the event on Wednesday. “It fuels our businesses, supports our services, and creates job opportunities which allows Minneapolis to thrive.”

To craft the master plan, a Meet Minneapolis team conducted interviews with over 900 residents and stakeholders in the city, collecting ideas of what could be beneficial to Minneapolis, its residents, and visitors.

Through this research, the team developed five strategic goals. Several are in line with Meet Minneapolis’ long-term vision for the city, such as developing new and enhancing existing festivals and events year-round. Two more notable strategic goals include establishing Minneapolis as a “national leader in equity and reconciliation,” and “increasing downtown vibrancy and expand mixed-use riverfront development.”

Redeveloping the Mississippi Riverfront has long been a goal for many downtown advocacy groups, including the Minneapolis Downtown Council.

The other “big ideas” laid out in the Meet Minneapolis master plan are:

• “Enhance Minneapolis’ nightlife scene to be a vibrant, thriving night economy
• Modernize the Minneapolis Convention Center to enhance the competitive advantage and create a signature convention center district
• Improve connections to the central riverfront near the Post Office site and the Upper Lock and Dam
• Embrace Minneapolis as a catalyst of the modern-day civil rights movement
• Develop an iconic event that showcases Minneapolis commitment to social justice”

Meet Minneapolis’ latest plan has plenty of big ideas but is relatively short on specifics about how to execute them. Funding for the many initiatives, for example, remains an open question. Meet Minneapolis leaders say it’s a matter of “working together” with other groups as much as possible.

“There is a cost to showing people who we are,” said Tabitha Montgomery, chair of the Meet Minneapolis board.

Meanwhile, the meeting also highlighted the city’s tourism gains for 2024, including hosting several big-ticket sporting events. Those included the USA Gymnastics Championships and the four-day Olympic Trials, inviting more than 200,000 visitors to the downtown area.

Unsurprisingly, Minneapolis hotels benefitted. In 2024, there were 2,072,664 hotel rooms sold in 2024 – the most since 2019, when 2,304,513 rooms were sold. Also in 2024, hotel room revenue reached $379,613,345, the highest ever for the city.

No other records were broken last year, though. June 23, 2023 still holds the record for the highest total number of hotel rooms booked, when Taylor Swift came into town.