Lack of collaboration on Tall Ships event spurs scrutiny of Visit Duluth
August 14, 2011 at 7:00 pm in Duluth News Tribune
A task force will recommend to the Duluth City Council tonight that it re-evaluate Visit Duluth’s operations.
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Tall Ships is too important to Duluth and MN to get into a petty – he said/he said! 2010 saw over 250K with over 50K in paid attendance – coming from all over the country. Tall Ship events require special maritime knowledge and a particular sensitivity to the needs of tall ship operators and their education mission. These events are part tourism-part education and cannot be measured by who enjoys “profit” at the end of the day… VisitDuluth has done a superb job taking the lead in the past few years.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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This article’s example of Visit Duluth’s poor working relationship with the DECC is alarming because the most appealing visitors to Duluth are convention goers. Attendees tend to stay longer and spend more than leisure visitors. A top priority of Visit Duluth should be to seek events that can use the DECC. If the 2 organizations don’t communicate effectively & get along well that’s a serious issue.
Visit Duluth receives $1.5 million per year – $15 million over 10 years. This critical expenditure should have some clear public documentation on where the dollars go & the economic impact clearly quantified. There’s an alarming lack of internal financial controls as evidenced by the CEO’s ability to sign checks w/o a counter-signer, late budgets, inability to work & communicate effectively with the DECC, an unwieldy 21 member Board with conflict of interests concerns, task force mentioning ‘significant problems’, etc.
It’s a rubber stamp process renewing Visit Duluth’s contract. A long overdue thorough investigation is needed to determine adequacy of management & weaknesses in internal controls.
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