Visit Duluth, Madden Media Talk 2025 Duluth Tourism Outlook
DULUTH, Minn. — Visit Duluth and the city’s new tourism market agency, Madden Media, are one month on the job together with a common goal of showcasing what makes Duluth the gem it is.
Madden Media is a national tourism marketing organization tasked with promoting Duluth over the next two years.
We spoke with Madden Media’s CEO, Daniel Janes, to not only talk about what Duluthians can expect from his team’s marketing vision, but also about their excitement for what’s ahead.
“It’s such a great opportunity to market in Duluth because there’s so much energy that’s coming. And I know when I came here 20 years ago, it’s a whole different environment than what it is today. … You see that in the Craft District and Lincoln Park, you see it in how Canal Park has changed and evolved, and you’re seeing a lot of that investment come to fruition. And there’s a lot of opportunity that’s here, the events that the DECC are hosting, the you know, getting people on shore reading Duluth as a base camp to see things around here and come back and enjoy the night life and enjoy the food. Those are all things that are very marketable, whether we’re getting another visit out of Minneapolis or other places throughout the community, or down to Chicago and other places that we think about nationally,” Janes said.
Madden Media, which is based in Tuscon, Arizona, joined a Visit Duluth luncheon last week that included industry stakeholders in lodging, attractions, food and beverage and community leadership.
DECC Exec. Director Dan Hartman, who is also a Visit Duluth board member, said an outside vision is not a bad thing.
“I think it’s always great to have an outsider’s take on our community and to hear what angles they think are going to help sell this community to other visitors who are coming into town. And I think having new data sets are always a useful thing to cost reference old data sets as well,” Hartman said. “It allows all of the industry to come in and just kind of hear how things are going. And so we bring in different speakers at different times, so that we can kind of all learn together in these things, too. But the real general idea is just to make what we’re doing accessible to everyone, so everyone can hear what’s going on.”
Visit Duluth is right now searching for a new executive director to lead the destination organization. Visit Duluth’s mission is all about attracting the maximum number of visitor dollars to the local economy by convention sales, among other areas, which in turn supports hotels and local businesses.
