Youth Sports And Entertainment Draw Visitors To St. Cloud Area

ST. CLOUD (WJON News) -- The St. Cloud metro area brought in a lot of visitors in 2025.

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Looking Back at St. Cloud Area Tourism in 2025

Rachel Thompson is the Executive Director of Visit Greater St. Cloud. She says, on average, each visitor spent $139 while they were in town, including day trippers as well as the people who stayed overnight. About 70 percent of the visitors spent at least one night here.

Thompson says they target a three to six-hour driving radius.

Ames, Iowa, and Des Moines, Iowa, increased their spending in the last year, so we saw them move up in the charts.  We take a look at not only volume, but also how much they are spending while they are here.

She says residents of Minneapolis and St.Paul are also primary markets. However, some markets are a bit tougher to break into.

Mankato continues to be a challenge market for us.  We see people coming from Sioux Falls, Rochester, and Des Moines, but for some reason, we don't capitalize on the Mankato market.

Thompson says they'll be testing that market more in 2026 to see what they are looking for. It is possible they have amenities are too similar to St. Cloud.

Thompson says youth sports tournaments are always going to be a big draw. She says live entertainment is also a strong pillar for our community, with three theaters in downtown St. Cloud, Summertime By George, Rock the Riverside in Sauk Rapids, and now The Ledge Amphitheater in Waite Park.

Yes, the Ledge Amphitheater has absolutely transformed the volume in that way.  Also, since they are bringing in national shows, that audience reach is a bit further as well.  We're also seeing an increase in family road trips with the children's museum opening in the last year; Munsinger Clemens Gardens remains a top destination, as well as Quarry Park.

Thompson says the Visit Greater St. Cloud website had over 700,000 pageviews in 2025, with "Things to do" and "events" the top pages. She says they are creating a new online events calendar to help with all of the website traffic.

Some of the top stories they posted to their Facebook page in 2025 were stories about the Great River Children's Museum and stories about the Foley Mansion.

Looking Ahead to St. Cloud Area Tourism in 2026

This should be another big year for tourism in the St. Cloud metro area. Thompson says the Vex Robotics state tournament will bring over 600 people to town, First Robotics has another 1,700 attendees, and the E-sports High School State Tournament will be here.

Some big ones, the Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association in April brings in over 1,000 attendees to River's Edge Convention Center.  Minnesota Quilters and the Quilt Show will see about 5,000 attendees in June.

Other big events happening in the St. Cloud area in 2026 include the Class "A" and "AA" State High School Baseball tournaments, the Jehovah's Witness convention, the Minnesota School Nutritionists, and Allied Charities.

Some annual community celebrations we can look forward to include the Downtown Art Crawls, Earth Day Run, Waite Park Family Fun Days, Granite City Days, the 250th celebration of the 4th of July, Benton County Fair, and, new this year, the North Star Air Show.

Visit Greater St. Cloud is a travel and tourism promoter for the region, which is funded through a lodging tax.