Rochester Minnesota Convention And Visitors Bureau

What Rochester Minnesota Convention And Visitors Bureau does

The Rochester Minnesota Convention and Visitors Bureau, operating under the brand "Experience Rochester MN," is the official destination marketing organization (DMO) for Rochester, Minnesota. It connects leisure travelers, medical visitors to Mayo Clinic, meeting planners, and sports event organizers with the city's hospitality, dining, attractions, and convention infrastructure. Its primary digital asset is the experiencerochestermn.com consumer website, built on the SimpleView CRM platform, which aggregates listings for hotels, restaurants, events, and attractions, and includes a secure partner extranet (rochestermn.extranet.simpleviewcrm.com) for B2B collaboration with hotels, restaurants, and attractions. The platform also powers event listings, directory listings, and an RFP submission system for meeting planners.

The organization's go-to-market combines consumer-facing content marketing (blog, e-newsletter, social under #ExperienceRochesterMN, and a podcast) with a direct enterprise sales motion led by a Senior National Sales Manager (Melissa Wiles) focused on medical meetings. It promotes the Mayo Civic Center's 200,000+ sq ft of meeting space and its skyway connections to 2,200+ hotel rooms, and runs destination events such as 4th Fest at Soldiers Field Memorial Park. A dedicated Mayo Clinic microsite provides patient and family resources including hotel listings (with charitable lodging options), parking guidance, and free concierge services (507-538-8438).

The CVB is an independent non-profit destination marketing organization funded through a combination of municipal/county tourism tax allocations, membership fees from partner hotels, restaurants, and attractions, and promotional fees for featured listings and advertising on the platform. No parent company, private equity backing, or institutional investment structures were identified. Revenue is not publicly disclosed. The organization is structurally anchored by its relationship with Mayo Clinic, which drives both the medical-meetings segment (where Rochester is ranked a top-five U.S. destination by Successful Meetings magazine) and the medical tourism segment, and is aligned with the $5 billion Bold. Forward. Unbound. downtown campus initiative and the upcoming Link Bus Rapid Transit system (full service expected early 2027).

Name

Rochester Minnesota Convention And Visitors Bureau

Legal name

Rochester, MN Convention & Visitors Bureau

Website

https://experiencerochestermn.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1989

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Rochester Minnesota Convention and Visitors Bureau, operating as Experience Rochester MN, is the official destination marketing organization for Rochester, Minnesota. It promotes the city to leisure travelers, medical visitors to Mayo Clinic, meeting planners, and sports event organizers via its SimpleView-powered website, content marketing, and direct enterprise sales.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Destination Marketing Services

NAICS

Convention and Visitors Bureaus (561591)

SIC

Services-Membership Organizations (8600)

akta.pro primary industry

Permitting, Reservations & Visitor Information Services (Passes, Booking, Visitor Centers) (THAAAGAD)

akta.pro secondary industry

Convention Campus & District Operators (Integrated Venue Districts) (THAHAAAL)

Keywords

• Destination marketing services
• Convention promotion
• Visitor information
• Tourism marketing
• Meeting planning services

Headquarters

HQ city

Rochester

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Technology or R&D, Others

Revenue model

1. Tourism promotion and destination marketing services: As a Convention and Visitors Bureau, the organization is funded through a combination of municipal/county tourism tax allocations, membership fees from partner hotels, restaurants, and attractions, and potentially promotional fees for featured listings and advertising on the platform.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Rochester Minnesota Convention and Visitors Bureau, operating as Experience Rochester MN, promotes Rochester, Minnesota as a destination through its consumer website (experiencerochestermn.com) that aggregates hotels, restaurants, attractions, and events for leisure travelers. It additionally provides convention and meeting planning services for medical and other conferences leveraging proximity to Mayo Clinic and the Mayo Civic Center's 200,000+ square feet of meeting space, and offers specialized visitor resources for Mayo Clinic patients and families.

Product overview

Experience Rochester MN is the official destination marketing organization for Rochester, Minnesota, operating as a unified platform combining digital visitor services with convention and meeting planning support. The core offering is a comprehensive tourism website that aggregates hotels, restaurants, attractions, events, and activities, supplemented by dedicated services for medical meetings and conventions leveraging the city's proximity to Mayo Clinic. Additional services include trolley tours, event planning consultation, and access to Mayo Civic Center as the primary meeting venue. The organization connects visitors with local businesses while promoting Rochester as a destination for tourism, healthcare-related travel, and conferences.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Experience Rochester MN Visitor Information Platform Comprehensive digital tourism portal for Rochester, Minnesota that aggregates hotel, restaurant, attraction, and event listings and provides planning tools for leisure visitors, including an insider's guide, weather, transportation, and Mayo Clinic visitor resources.
• Medical Meetings and Conventions Sales Services B2B services targeting meeting planners and association executives seeking a destination for medical and technology conferences. Includes dedicated sales management, RFP processing, venue information, and Mayo Clinic support for tours, panel experts, and guest speakers.
• Event Planning and RFP Inquiry Services Contact and consultation services provided by the CVB to event organizers for venue selection, accommodations coordination, and event planning for meetings, weddings, parties, and celebrations in Rochester.
• Mayo Clinic Patient and Family Visitor Resources Dedicated section of the Experience Rochester MN platform providing Mayo Clinic patients and their families with information on hotels (including charitable lodging), getting here/around guides, parking, restaurants nearby, and free concierge services (507-538-8438).
• Experience Rochester Content Marketing and Podcast Regular blog posts and a podcast covering Rochester events, dining, outdoor activities, and local culture to inspire pre-trip planning and visitor engagement.

Quantifiable outcome

• Rochester ranked a top-five destination for medical meetings by Successful Meetings magazine
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers1 record

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Seven partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Destination Medical Center (DMC)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerDMC is a major economic development initiative in Rochester focused on growing the city's healthcare and medical technology ecosystem. Experience Rochester collaborates with DMC on construction update information (downtownrochesterconstruction.org) and joint destination promotion.
• City of RochestercoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerThe City of Rochester is collaborating with Destination Medical Center and Mayo Clinic on the DowntownRochesterConstruction.org website, providing vehicle, bicycle, and pedestrian maps and weekly updates on road closures and detours related to the downtown transformation.
• Mayo CliniccoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerMayo Clinic is Rochester's anchor institution and primary demand driver. It supports the city's large medical meetings by arranging specialized campus tours, providing subject-matter experts as convention panelists and moderators, and coordinating guest speakers. Mayo Clinic's $5 billion Bold. Forward. Unbound. initiative is a major investment in the city's downtown campus.
• Explore MinnesotaminorGTM or Marketing PartnerExplore Minnesota is the state's official tourism promotion organization. Experience Rochester appears alongside Explore Minnesota branding on the website footer, indicating a state-level tourism marketing partnership.
• SimpleView Inc.coreTechnology or IntegrationSimpleView Inc. provides the CRM and website platform powering experiencerochestermn.com and the Partner Extranet (rochestermn.extranet.simpleviewcrm.com). This platform handles directory listings, event calendars, RFP submissions, and partner management.
• Rochester Trolley & Tour CompanyminorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorRochester Trolley & Tour Company operates five historic trolleys (Will, Charlie, W.W. Mayo, Alfred, and Henry) offering city tours, wine trail tours, microbrewery tours, and private charters. Featured on the CVB's website as a recommended tour operator.
• Brand USAminorGTM or Marketing PartnerBrand USA is the United States' destination marketing organization. Experience Rochester's website links to Brand USA's visit the USA platform, supporting international tourism promotion.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Visit Baltimore: Baltimore's official DMO with medical-meetings positioning anchored by Johns Hopkins. Comparable mid-size city profile with a world-class hospital system as primary medical meetings demand driver, similar convention-center-plus-hotels infrastructure story.
• Visit Music City (Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp): Nashville's official DMO with strong meetings/conventions vertical around a newly built convention center and 2,000+ connected hotel rooms. Closely comparable city-DMO structure, infrastructure scale, and medical-meetings expansion trajectory.
• Visit Houston: Greater Houston CVB, anchored by the Texas Medical Center. Direct competitor in the medical-meetings vertical with significantly larger scale, competing for the same medical conference RFPs on which Rochester positions itself.
• Visit San Antonio: San Antonio's official DMO with medical-meetings positioning around UT Health and military medicine. Comparable mid-size city DMO model with similar convention infrastructure scale and a strong public-private funding mix.
• Visit Minneapolis: Official destination marketing organization for Minneapolis, MN. Most directly comparable as a same-state, same-class Midwestern city DMO promoting meetings, conventions, leisure travel, and partner extranet programs through a similar sales-led model.
• This Is Cleveland: Cleveland's official DMO with a medical-meetings positioning anchored by Cleveland Clinic. Directly analogous to Rochester/Mayo Clinic - both mid-sized cities leveraging a globally recognized hospital system as the primary demand driver for convention RFPs.

Broad incumbents

• Choose Chicago: Chicago's official DMO and a much larger metropolitan competitor. Same Midwest geography, competes for medical and corporate meetings at a fundamentally larger scale with deeper sales coverage, larger convention halls, and broader international flight access.
• Discover Boston / Greater Boston CVB: Greater Boston's official tourism and meetings DMO. Larger incumbent with medical-meetings positioning from major Boston hospitals, broader luxury and international traveler focus, and far larger convention infrastructure.

Regional players

• Explore Minnesota: The official state-level DMO for Minnesota, listed as a co-marketing partner. Operates at a regional state level rather than competing with Experience Rochester's single-city focus, but functionally adjacent as an enabling destination marketing layer.

Others

• Brand USA: The United States' national destination marketing organization, linked from Experience Rochester's footer to drive international visitor promotion. Functions as an enabling upstream layer for inbound tourism rather than a direct competitor.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xtwitter.com/CityofRochMN
• YouTubeyoutube.com/@CityofRochMN
• Facebookfacebook.com/CityofRochMN
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/experiencerochestermn
• Instagraminstagram.com/cityofrochestermn

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Rochester Minnesota Convention And Visitors Bureau