How Minnesota Tourism Answered a Hard Year | Live From IPW 2026

Welcome to a special IPW 2026 series of View From Afar. In this episode, recorded live from the conference floor, Explore Minnesota executive director Lauren Bennett McGinty sits down with Afar editorial director Billie Cohen for one of our most heartfelt travel industry interviews yet: a look at how Minnesota tourism answered one of the hardest years in the state's memory. Lauren leads tourism for a state that spent the past year in the national spotlight for reasons far beyond travel, from federal enforcement activity and tensions with Canada to a ruling on mining near the Boundary Waters. Her question became how to talk about Minnesota tourism in a way that feels human rather than tone-deaf. In this episode, Lauren and Billie discuss: How the Star of the North campaign made authenticity the baseline, inviting outsiders to tell Minnesota's story because locals are too humble to brag The idea of neighborism, the notion that Minnesota nice means digging your neighbor out of the snowbank no matter what, and the Come Visit Your Neighbors campaign it inspired The love letter to Minnesota, a fast, low-budget spot mixing nostalgic footage with voices like Chef Yia Vang, Olympian Jessie Diggins, and former Minneapolis mayor R.T. Rybak Real numbers from that two-week push, 900,000 people reached and nearly 30,000 clicks at a 9.5 percent engagement rate Why the Explore Minnesota homepage now invites people to move there, and how tourism and relocation feed each other The under-the-radar Minnesota Lauren loves, from the St. Croix Valley pottery tour to Franconia Sculpture Park This is one in a series of travel industry interviews and tourism experts interviews recorded live at IPW 2026, part of View From Afar's ongoing look at travel trends 2026, travel marketing strategies, and the travel industry challenges of promoting a place in a hard moment. For an honest look at Minnesota tourism under pressure, it is a front-row conversation with one of the hospitality industry leaders shaping the future of travel. Chapters 00:00:00 Welcome to View From Afar 00:01:50 The Tough Year Behind the Headlines 00:05:30 Defining Neighborism 00:07:30 A Love Letter to Minnesota 00:11:30 Why People Are Moving There 00:14:40 Small Towns, Big Nutcrackers 00:17:20 Lessons for Other Destinations Resources Visit Explore Minnesota Find Explore Minnesota on Instagram and Facebook Explore Afar's Minnesota travel guide Stay Connected Subscribe to View From Afar to catch all our IPW 2026 episodes this week. Follow @AfarMedia on ⁠Instagram⁠ and ⁠TikTok⁠ for behind-the-scenes IPW content. ⁠Sign up⁠ for our travel industry newsletter, Afar Advisor. Rate and review the show to help other travel professionals discover these insights. Explore our other podcasts, ⁠Travel Tales⁠ and ⁠Unpacked⁠. This IPW 2026 special series was recorded live. View From Afar is a production of Afar Media and a part of Airwave Media's podcast network (email ⁠[email protected]⁠ if you would like to advertise on our podcast). The podcast is produced by Aislyn Greene and Nikki Galteland, with assistance from Michelle Baran and Billie Cohen. Music composition from Epidemic Sound. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices