Talking Tourism with Linda Jurek – Hygge and the DMO Life

I love traveling. It doesn’t matter if I’m driving a local backroad that I’ve never encountered before or if I’m in Duluth waiting for my plane to taxi down the runway and take me away. I’m writing this blog from Chicago’s O’Hare. I just eavesdropped on an entire conversation of a young couple and a dad returning from a ski trip to the Canadian Rockies. Oh how I wanted to tell them to go to Lutsen. : )

A server at the restaurant was originally from Minneapolis. He now lives in Chicago and makes the trip to Cook County every winter. He doesn’t go to recreate. He travels to us in order to Hygge. He is our Hygge poster child.

When you’re the director of a destination marketing organization that is realizing success with their marketing decisions, you take on a whole new viewpoint with travel. Nothing looks the same. Even the bathrooms take on a new slant.

I also find it rather peculiar the number of people that ask if I’m enjoying our slow season. There is no slow season in what we do. Last week, we helped host the WCCO crew for their three day “Goin’ To The (Frozen) Lake” Series. Their primary objective was to experience the Lutsen Mountains mid-winter experience, but we also encouraged them to visit Grand Marais and experience the complete “up north” lifestyle, including celebrating Hygge.

Also, over the past few weeks we have meet with all of associations to decide on the summer vertical markets as well as event financial support. Kjersti Vick, marketing manager for VCC, seeks input from all of stakeholders. You can view the survey results on our Press Page. So, as you can see, there is no such thing as slow season for the Visit Cook County team.

Visit Cook County takes home more awards from the annual Explore Minnesota Tourism (EMT) Conference.

And in case you didn’t hear, we added to our growing collection of awards from Explore Minnesota Tourism. This year, we were recent recipients of three Explore MN travel awards.

1. Linda Jurek, executive director of Visit Cook County, was named “Rising Star” for her strong work in promoting the area.

2. Lutsen99er received an “Award of Excellence” for Event of the Year.

3. Lake Superior Storm Festival received an “Award of Merit” for Event of the Year.