Growing Destinations

Building Better Destinations: Inside the Work of the University of Minnesota Tourism Center

• Experience Rochester • Episode 80

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Today’s guest on the Growing Destinations podcast brings a thoughtful, research-driven lens to the tourism landscape. Xinyi Qian is Director of the University of Minnesota Tourism Center, a statewide resource focused on supporting communities through tourism education, research, and strategic planning.

Xinyi’s work sits at the intersection of tourism, economic development, and community vitality. Under her leadership, the Tourism Center is helping destinations across Minnesota adapt to emerging trends, build sustainable strategies, and create meaningful visitor experiences.

Bill Von Bank:

The Growing Destinations podcast is brought to you by Experience Rochester. Learn more about Minnesota's third largest city, which is home to Mayo Clinic and features wonderful recreational and entertainment opportunities, by visiting experiencerochestermncom.

Xinyi Qian:

Communities have perceptions about themselves, and we all have history. We all have assumptions and we all have history.

Bill Von Bank:

We all have assumptions and sometimes it is fascinating to see what outsiders actually see and perceive. Welcome to the Growing Destinations podcast, where we take a deep dive into destination development and focus on a wide range of topics, from tourism and entertainment to economic development and entrepreneurism and much more. I'm your host, bill Vaughn Bank. Today's guest on the Growing Destinations podcast brings a thoughtful, research-driven lens to the tourism landscape. I'm joined by Xinyi Qian, director of the University of Minnesota Tourism Center, a statewide resource focused on supporting communities through tourism, education, research and strategic planning. Shani's work sits at the intersection of tourism, economic development and community vitality. Under her leadership, the tourism center is helping destinations across Minnesota adapt to emerging trends, build sustainable strategies and create meaningful visitor experiences. Xinyi Qian, welcome to the Growing Destinations podcast.

Xinyi Qian:

Thank you, Bill. Thank you for having me here today.

Bill Von Bank:

Well, I've known you for several years and we've talked about bringing you on the podcast for a while, so here you are, so thank you for joining us. And we've talked about bringing you on the podcast for a while, so here you are, so thank you for joining us. Can you share with us your career journey and your path to the University of Minnesota Tourism Center?

Xinyi Qian:

I went to graduate school at Penn State in the Department of Recreation, Park and Tourism Management. Upon graduating with my doctoral degree in 2012, I landed a one-year research associate opportunity in the Department of Forestry Resources here at the University of Minnesota. So that's really a great transition year for me, and I get my foot in the door, so to speak, at the university. While there, the tourism center announced that it would be hiring for a statewide specialist position at the time, and so I applied, went through the hiring and interviewing process and was offered a position. My husband and I put down our roots here both kids born and raised here and then, in December 2020, my immediate predecessor retired, and so I was the interim director for about a year, and then I was offered the director position in December 2021.

Bill Von Bank:

What sparked your interest in tourism, research and community development?

Xinyi Qian:

That's a really good question. The sparks came to me in two waves, if you will. First off, I realized I had an analytical mind and genuinely enjoy doing research when I was in college and I majored in tourism management. So the first wave was tourism research, especially visitor experience in psychology, as I am fascinated with human mind and emotions. The second wave connected the dots between tourism and community development. Tourism is not an isolated phenomenon. It is inherently intertwined with community economic development. So putting tourism in a bigger context of community economic development to me is a prerequisite for sustainable tourism development and management.

Bill Von Bank:

I always say that tourism is the purest form of economic development, wouldn't you agree?

Xinyi Qian:

Yes, I would agree. Yes, we are singing to the choir.

Bill Von Bank:

That's true. A visitor can become a resident, can become a business owner and can hire people, and it's just that flywheel.

Xinyi Qian:

Yes, the halo effect, the effectiveness of using tourism and also outdoor recreation for resident recruitment and retainment.

Bill Von Bank:

indeed, For listeners who may not be familiar, can you give us a snapshot of the mission and work of the University of Minnesota Tourism Center?

Xinyi Qian:

The mission of the Tourism Center is to empower, prepare and support the tourism industry and the communities engaging in tourism for success and sustainability. It is really important to emphasize that the tourism center is housed in Extension's Department of Community Development and I will tell you why as I go on. So the center has a few priority areas. First, community tourism development has a few priority areas. First, community tourism development. We have programs including community coaching work that we do often with educators in the department to help communities engage in sustainable and thoughtful community tourism development. And a second priority area is outdoor recreation.

Xinyi Qian:

So we are fortunate enough to have a full-time statewide specialist with the tourism center and a larger portion of her work has been focused on outdoor recreation, especially nature-based outdoor tourism. And a third priority area is called I call it consumer intelligence. Now that is a fancy way to describe our on-demand applied research service. We collaborate especially with the senior economic impact analyst of Extension when projects have an economic impact component tourism, which is bringing visitors onto farms. It could be you pick berries, pumpkin patches, on-farm events, on-farm stays and so the collaborative nature of our work means that we work with colleagues across extension, the university system, industry and communities.

Bill Von Bank:

Well, you've mentioned collaboration a few times and you collaborate with communities across the state. What are some of the most common challenges they face in tourism development?

Xinyi Qian:

No two communities are the same. However, there are at least two common challenges that I have observed over the years. One is the role of tourism in community economic development, especially how tourism interacts with other issues, For example housing, transportation, workforce, so on and so forth. And then the other challenge is the coalition and the capacity building. It takes time and effort to build relationships with stakeholders and partners, and in small rural communities capacity is often limited because oftentimes the same individuals tend to have been tapped out for a variety of roles and demands in the community. These are the two common challenges I have observed.

Bill Von Bank:

Maybe we take a little bit of a deeper dive. So how does the tourism center help communities build capacity and create more sustainable and vibrant destinations? Maybe some examples from some of your work.

Xinyi Qian:

The Tourism Center does this work through education, applied research and community coaching. For example, we are currently completely redeveloping the festival and event management online course because we want the online course to be even better able to serve the needs of community festivals, especially the ones in smaller rural communities.

Bill Von Bank:

Which are so important to drive visitation to communities.

Xinyi Qian:

To communities and also it is a tool, an opportunity for placemaking, for residents' sense of place, attachment, identity and quality of life. And also this summer I'm giving you a lot of things in the hopper right.

Bill Von Bank:

That's great.

Xinyi Qian:

Thank you, bill. So this summer I will work with a faculty in applied economics and also a graduate student to look at how generative AI can be leveraged and harnessed for community tourism development. We do not want communities to feel like this is a threat or we are already being left behind again. We want to coach and enable communities to harness generative AI for community tourism development.

Bill Von Bank:

Such a hot topic right now.

Xinyi Qian:

Yes, it is. It may pass off the impression I'm jumping on a bandwagon, but my goal is not to write a paper or anything like that, but to be able to produce easy to read, actionable, relevant tip sheets or worksheets that communities can take and utilize in their own context.

Bill Von Bank:

I think that's fantastic, because it does seem somewhat overwhelming right now to learn, understand and maybe even there's some criticism around using it.

Xinyi Qian:

Yes, it's a very complicated and nuanced topic and at this year's Explore Minnesota Tourism Conference there were multiple sessions a keynote followed by two breakout sessions on this exact topic generative AI and I would say the speaker is experienced and renowned on this topic. It provided a very solid grounding, a very strong foundation upon which hopefully we can build further build not necessarily exactly, quote, unquote knowledge, but to be able to again bring it to communities and coach them and enable them you have a program.

Bill Von Bank:

it's a tourism assessment program for communities and I know that Experience Rochester has had conversations with you about bringing that program to the community. Can you give us an overview of what that program is all about?

Xinyi Qian:

I would say tourism assessment program. In essence it is a community coaching process. It is not exactly training or education, it is more than applied research and it's a true partnership and a collaborative process between tourism center, a variety of partners and colleagues and, of course, the destination community right. And so we always start out by having conversations with the community in terms of their needs, goals, aspirations and really set the tone and the scope for the tourism assessment program, because no two programs, no two communities look exactly the same right. And then it is also important again, building coalitions. In my initial conversations with a community, it is always really important to articulate really the essential importance of bringing all the partners and stakeholders to the table. Bringing all the partners and stakeholders to the table it is not like we need to have a 20-person team to work with, but in conversations, when we organize community visits and community meetings, it is truly important that these folks are mobilized and activated.

Bill Von Bank:

And bringing their perspective to the table.

Xinyi Qian:

Yes, yes, exactly Because communities have perceptions about themselves. Yes, yes, exactly Because communities have perceptions about themselves. And we all have history, we all have assumptions, and sometimes it is fascinating to see what outsiders actually see and perceive and what data tells us right. And so residents have their perspectives, businesses have their opinions, so we want to bring all these pieces together.

Bill Von Bank:

You often work at the intersection of tourism and economic development. How do you see that relationship evolving, especially in the context of a post-pandemic recovery?

Xinyi Qian:

So the intersection of tourism and economic development. Oftentimes I would see their interaction popping up in terms of intersections between different issues. So, for example, workforce and workforce housing and then the tourism, especially hospitality industry, not only in the Twin Cities metro area, not only in the Twin Cities metro area but also in greater Minnesota, right. So that is, I think, post-pandemic. For whatever reasons, these interactions or say intersections are being noticed, talked about, acknowledged and more interest in addressing these challenges or intersections more conscientiously, right, and also hopefully also in a more collaborative way.

Xinyi Qian:

For example, I've been working with the Center for Rural Policy and a development on a small-scale project that looks at hospitality and a workforce, workforce housing in hospitality industry, especially again in Greater Minnesota, in rural communities. And I've also seen, even within the university system, folks paying more attention to these intersections because some of these areas or aspects are rather big, for example transportation. Historically they may or may not really pay attention to tourism or outdoor recreation. However, post the pandemic I've seen mind being opened up, probably because of folks lost the privilege to travel, and they've all seen the travel, tourism and hospitality industry being devastated by the pandemic. So it really is still recovering.

Xinyi Qian:

Yes, still recovering. So it really has jumped onto the collective awareness and the mentality of the general public and certainly at a university. So, for example, when a Center for Transportation Studies at a university did a year of transportation in rural communities, I wrote a piece on transportation and gateway communities in rural areas to major outdoor tourism destinations. So I wouldn't say this, you know, might be the most possible 20 years ago, but it certainly has already taken place right. So I do see that as a really good, constructive and hopeful trend that by all means I want to see it continue.

Bill Von Bank:

What's one initiative or project you're especially proud of during your time as director? I see you're shaking your head with a big smile, so you obviously have one top of mind.

Xinyi Qian:

Yes, I do. Actually, I start off wanting to say there are quite a few things that I'm proud of, but I will name. Maybe I'm cheating a little bit here, but I will name one umbrella initiative, which is how we tell the story of the tourism center's work and its impact. We now actively name and communicate our priority areas. We restarted producing an annual report, but now using a very visual format. We overhauled our website and refreshed our quarterly newsletter. We continue to engage our audience on LinkedIn and thoughtfully leverage our partners' platforms, and we consistently and strategically maintain relationships with internal and we consistently and strategically maintain relationships with internal industry and community partners, and recently we just started planning for our 40th anniversary celebrations in 2027.

Bill Von Bank:

So stay tuned.

Xinyi Qian:

Yes, we will have a lot more to share in the come and hopefully do another podcast episode two years from now.

Bill Von Bank:

What trends or shifts are you seeing in Minnesota's tourism landscape that communities should be paying attention to?

Xinyi Qian:

That's a very important question and almost feel like writing a miniature opinion piece, but here is my attempt to share my personal thoughts here. So the first we already discussed, actually which is how to harness the power of generative AI ethically and thoughtfully right. So that's the first one, the first topic that is on my mind. Second is the whole piece around DMO. What does the M stands for? Right? So I would say, yes, marketing, certainly, but I've also seen more and more conscientious work in terms of I'm also standing for management, and I do not think that is either or it's not a zero-sum game, and I think it can be both.

Bill Von Bank:

And and the history behind that is convention and visitor bureaus used to be called CBBs. That's right, and then the transition came to destination marketing organizations or DMOs, and now management comes into play in terms of destination development.

Xinyi Qian:

Yes, yes, and I would say COVID also brought it more forefront, in a sense that when we didn't have visitors coming to our communities, we realized that the in-reach in terms of relationships with residents and how we proactively partner with and manage the assets that we have in terms of tourism in our communities, all these have brought destination management more to the forefront. And I would say there are two other trends I've seen. One is they are actually intertwined if we really think about it. One is adaptation in response to changing weather patterns, and then the other is a placemaking and a quality of life, and so quality of life, placemaking you know, if the weather patterns are truly extreme, it will definitely negatively impact the quality of life. Placemaking, you know, if the weather patterns are truly extreme, it will definitely negatively impact the quality of life.

Xinyi Qian:

And we often use outdoor recreation tourism as a part of placemaking because it contributes directly to quality of life. And part of the mentality also is we build a community that has great quality of life for residents. It's a great community and well along the way visitors will arrive. It doesn't always happen organically that way exactly, but if we take care of the residents, it's a great community with a great infrastructure and amenities. They are inherently attractive to visitors too.

Bill Von Bank:

And residents can be your best brand ambassadors for your community.

Xinyi Qian:

Yes, because the old cliche was always you stopped at a gas station and the attendant look at you and say why are you here? There's nothing that you should see, you can see, enjoy experience here. That really was rather unfortunate and rather we want the waitstaff at a restaurant rattling off all the entertainment, recreational, the kind of opportunity, cultural heritage opportunities in the community, right. So that really is what we want.

Bill Von Bank:

What advice would you give to someone early in their career who's interested in making an impact through tourism?

Xinyi Qian:

First really is very general, high level, which is the breadth and the depth of your knowledge. What you know and both are important. We can become, relatively speaking, specialized in one area, but stay curious and always keep the bigger picture in mind, because you never know how that particular topic will show up again later in your career, in your work, and how it is going to help you. And then the second piece is relationship in a coalition building. This is a people industry and we have a lot of sectors. It's a very diversified industry in that way, and so your relationships and be a connector that will really be beneficial not only to yourselves but also to all the folks around you, which ultimately will also be helpful for you, right? And then the last piece is that tourism is a part of a broader community economic development picture. Never lost sight of that.

Bill Von Bank:

Great insights. Xinyi Qian Appreciate Appreciate all the University of Minnesota Tourism Center does for the community, the broader sector in economic development. Congratulations on your upcoming 40th anniversary and thank you for being our guest on the Growing Destinations podcast.

Xinyi Qian:

Thank you so much, Bill. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to communicate with the audience, the industry and our communities. It is my pleasure and look forward to our continuous partnership.

Bill Von Bank:

Thank you for tuning in to the Growing Destinations podcast and don't forget to subscribe. This podcast is brought to you by Experience Rochester. Find out more about Rochester, Minnesota, and its growing arts and culture scene, its international culinary flavors and award-winning craft beer by visiting experiencerochestermncom.

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