Minnesota Resorts - Recently-released 2009 Sales Tax Data

Release Date: Jul 23, 2012

Newly-released data from the Minnesota Department of Revenue reports the following activity for 914 Minnesota resorts in 2009: $230.8 million in gross sales, $195.7 million in taxable sales and $13.6 million in state sales tax revenue. While these sales and tax revenue amounts were down from 2008 levels, they were slightly better (i.e., less negative) than annual changes for all accommodations (i.e., hotels, motels, resorts, campgrounds, etc.). Declines in resort performance for 2009 ranged from 5.5% for state sales tax to 8.8% for taxable sales, compared with declines of 9.6% and 12.3% respectively for these measures for all accommodations.

The following two graphs show gross sales and state sales tax revenue for Minnesota resorts from 2004 through 2009, including regional and statewide totals. Data included in the graphs can be found in a series of annual reports on EMT's industry website. The graphs depict growth through 2007, followed by declines in both 2008 and 2009 associated with the recession. The graphs show Minnesota's four tourism regions through 2006, and five regions starting with 2007. When regional reconfiguration essentially split the North Central/West Region into the Northwest and Central Regions, resort sales activity in the three resulting northern regions (i.e., Northwest, Central and Northeast Regions) were at very similar levels, as evidenced by the overlapping lines on the graphs. Total sales activity at the relatively few Metro and Southern Region resorts are considerably lower than for northern regions, and are depicted as overlapping lines at the bottoms of the graphs. For clarity, the graph legends display the state and regions in the approximate order they appear in the graphs, from top to bottom. As with all sales tax data, reporting here is subject to problems with irregularities, industry classification issues, etc. that can result in annual data swings that are difficult to interpret, particularly for areas with fewer resorts.