The Memo: Local tourism, a new grocery service and more – Duluth News Tribune

If you read The Memo last week, this will come as no surprise: A large portion of Minnesotans plan to vacation locally, according to a survey of 7,500 U.S. adults done by biotechnological products company MyBioSource.

The survey found that two in three Minnesotans will opt to vacation within the state to avoid catching or spreading the coronavirus.

About 55% of adults nationwide say they’re more likely to travel within their home states.

Economic strain resulting from the pandemic may also be at play here, the survey results say. About 71% of respondents said they’re considering skipping vacationing altogether this summer because of financial stressors.

Tourists

On a similar note: Tourism is on the uptick in Duluth.

Duluth’s hotel and motel tax revenue was down 87% in April compared to the same time last year.

But we’ve seen major change since then.

Hotel occupancy increased by 10% each week in May. And during the last weekend of June, Duluth hotels saw up to 70% occupancy.

Those figures come from a letter Mayor Emily Larson sent to Gov. Tim Walz and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, in which she urged them to adopt a statewide mask mandate.

“We are seeing throngs of people visiting beautiful Duluth, and doing so without wearing a mask or following social distancing guidelines. We love being a city that people want to visit, and we need to keep our workers supporting this industry safe,” she wrote.

Groceries

Need another reason to go to Target? Here’s one. Target has expanded its grocery pickup — a service that limits your in-person contact.

With the expansion comes the ability to pick up fresh and frozen food via the retailer’s curbside or in-store pickup service, according to a news release from Target.

Duluth is one of the approximately 1,500 Target stores receiving the new service.

It’s a free offering, and your groceries will be ready in a few hours after placing an order.

The service was demonstrated at Twin Cities stores, and Target is moving to expand it just in time for summer cookouts.

A note on The Memo

As our newsroom shifts to a new printing schedule for the physical paper, the date The Memo publishes will also change.

I’ll still be covering interesting and newsworthy tidbits for The Memo, which you can now find in Wednesday’s edition of the print paper. Look for other business news as we continue to publish daily online.

Of course, you can always find it online at duluthnews.com.

Kelly Busche covers business and health for the News Tribune. Her own limited summer vacation plans involve staying in the state.