ABOVE: A screenshot of a reel that Brittany Hartman of Visit Fairmont posted on social media of her visit to Edie’s Restaurant. Posting these short-form videos of local attractions are one of the things Visit Fairmont does to promote the city and encourage tourism.

FAIRMONT– At its meeting on Monday, the Fairmont City Council declared this week national travel and tourism week in the city of Fairmont. Brittany Hartman, Executive Director of Visit Fairmont, the convention and visitors bureau, has been extra busy recently promoting the city ahead of the summer season.

In February, Hartman attended the Explore Minnesota conference. At the council meeting on Monday, she was able to share some interesting statistics for Martin County that came from Explore Minnesota.

She said that Explore Minnesota defines a visitor as someone who stays overnight or traveled at least 50 miles to their destination. With that in mind, in 2024, visitors spent nearly $37 million in Martin County across lodging, restaurants, recreation, retail and transportation.

Also in 2024, visitors to Martin County contributed $5.6 million in taxes and $1.9 million in local taxes. Each household in Minnesota would need to be taxed $1,031 more annually to make up for the visitor-generated dollars.

Acknowledging that tourism boosts the local economy, Hartman and her board work on strategies to entice people to come and visit Fairmont.

“Our goal is to showcase what Fairmont has to offer and encourage visitors to spend the night here at one of our hotels, motels, cabins or vacation rental homes,” Hartman said.

Looking at the coming months, she said, “summer is definitely our busy season for Fairmont tourism.”

Since she assumed the role just over two years ago, Hartman has had a goal of growing Visit Fairmont’s social media presence. In the past two years, she said their following has grown by 3,000.

“I know people have seen our social media and all of the reels I’ve been doing to showcase Fairmont’s attractions, restaurants and shopping that way,” she said.

A reel is a short-form video, up to 90 seconds long, that is then posted on social media platforms. Hartman has been posting hers on Visit Fairmont’s Instagram and Facebook accounts.

In the reels she can be seen going into downtown stores like D & S Trophies and Lori Darlin’s. She’s also posted reels at eateries including The Ranch Restaurant, Graffiti Corner and Edie’s.

“One of the videos that took off was the Edie’s Restaurant one. That one got over 165,000 views on it,” she said.

While the videos are meant to promote Fairmont’s attractions to potential visitors, Hartman said she’s also heard from locals who have learned about a store, restaurant or attraction through her reels.

In addition to the reels, Hartman said, “I’ve also been promoting Fairmont summer events such as the triathlon, Interlaken Heritage Days and the Martin County Fair, just to name a few. We’re currently running ads for that.”

Another big thing for Fairmont in the summer is the lakes and the recreational opportunities that come with them, including fishing. She spoke specifically about a recent state change for southern Minnesota concerning yellow bass limits.

“With the increase to 100 per day, it really helps out the tourism and local businesses like Sommer Outdoors,” Hartman said.

One of the strategic goals she and the board defined this year was to explore and test market opportunities that are rooted in Fairmont’s strengths.

“One of Fairmont’s strengths that we’ve identified is the interstate traffic,” Hartman said. “Currently I’m running ads to promote Fairmont as a halfway point between Chicago and the Black Hills.”

She acknowledged that Fairmont has a lot of traffic coming through and the goal is to have people stop and spend some time, possibly the night, in Fairmont because it’s a halfway point. Fairmont is about 450 miles each way between the two.

Finally, she spoke about the success of the My Town series episode with Cory Hepola that was done on Fairmont. The video, which was a joint venture between Visit Fairmont, Fairmont Economic Development Authority and the Fairmont Area School District, first aired on Youtube in December 2025.

“It’s reached 118,000 views on Youtube. We’ve heard nothing but positive feedback from this episode,” Hartman said.

Several times during the month of April the episode aired at various times on KEYC TV and Hartman shared that due to the good feedback they received, the episode will continue to air at various times throughout May as well. As part of that, some local businesses have commercials that also air along with the video.

At the Explore Minnesota conference in February, Visit Fairmont was actually named a finalist for video of the year for the My Town series episode.

“It’s amazing to be recognized as a finalist,” Hartman said.

Looking forward to the coming months, she will also attend the Minnesota Tourism Association Conference in June on behalf of Visit Fairmont.