The Visitor Beat

Welcome to The Visitor Beat, the monthly newsletter of Experience Sioux Falls. Stay up-to-date on what's going on locally in the travel industry, as well as what's trending nationally. 

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ESF Gears Up for Hunters

Experience Sioux Falls (ESF) will be welcoming hundreds of pheasant hunters flying into Sioux Falls October 16-17 in preparation for opening day of the pheasant hunting season in South Dakota. Repeat hunters traveling to Sioux Falls have grown accustomed to being greeted at the airport with a warm welcome, a souvenir mug, and cookies from the ESF team for many years.

There are a limited number of vendor spaces available at the Hunter’s Welcome event for businesses and organizations to promote and sell products.

At the state level, Travel South Dakota has put a large emphasis in recent years on promoting hunting in the state with its Hunt the Greatest campaign.

Connect Marketplace

Three members of the Experience Sioux Falls sales team were recently in Miami attending Connect Marketplace where they had a total of 85 appointments over several days with prospective planners across the country who are looking at the Midwest as a destination for their events. The team returned with some very strong leads to pursue for future bookings in Sioux Falls.

Connect Marketplace is known as a premier event in the meetings, conventions, and sports events industry which hosts a tradeshow, appointments, and educational sessions all in the span of a few days. This year’s event had approximately 3,000 attendees.

S.P.O.R.T.S. Conference

Experience Sioux Falls sports sales manager, Brandon Vant Hul, will be in Columbia, SC, next week to attend “S.P.O.R.T.S. – The Relationship Conference” where he will have 25 appointments with sports planners who are interested in bringing an event to Sioux Falls. This niche conference has proven to be beneficial in securing quality leads to pursue for Sioux Falls in the past.

Virtual Sales Blitz

The Experience Sioux Falls sales team is set to run a campaign targeting qualified professional planners across the country in an effort to schedule virtual meetings to discuss Sioux Falls as a potential fit as a destination for a future event. The sales team will be holding the virtual meetings at the end of September with planners of meetings, conventions, sports events, and tour operators.

Are you part of a club or organization with an event that you would love to see in Sioux Falls? If so, get in touch with a member of the sales team who will work on bringing that event to the city.

South Dakota Great Face & Great Place Nominations

The nomination deadline for the South Dakota Great Face and Great Place programs is September 30. Organized by Travel South Dakota, the Great Face program recognizes individuals who go above and beyond every day to take care of their customers and their community. 

The Great Place program spotlights businesses, communities, and organizations that exemplify great service around the state by consistently putting people first, continuously going above and beyond, and helping strangers at every opportunity.

Tourism Educational Conference

Several members of the Experience Sioux Falls team were in Phoenix last month along with members of the Travel South Dakota team to attend U.S. Travel Association’s ESTO (Educational Seminar for Tourism Organizations). Each year, this annual conference for destination marketing professionals from city, regional, and state tourism offices features educational sessions that focus on travel marketing trends, the state of the travel industry, and key opportunities in the year ahead. The 2025 event brought approximately 1,000 attendees to Phoenix for several days of learning and networking.

Record-Breaking Attendance for Levitt at the Falls

The 2025 concert season for Levitt at the Falls has come to a close, and the organization recently announced an all-time attendance record was set following the final concert on August 30. By the organization’s count, it estimates a total of 120,317 people participated in Levitt programming this summer, with an average attendance of 2,344 per concert.

A few of the 2025 season highlights include:

• For the first time in Levitt Sioux Falls history, a band performed on two consecutive nights, with Brulé performing for nearly 15,000 people July 11-12, making it the largest crowds of the season, followed by the 5,501 fans who attended That Sounds Decent on June 28.
• Levitt partnered with community organizations for festivals, which drew in 23,631 attendees. Those festivals are the Festival of Cultures with LSS Multi-Cultural Center, That Sounds Decent, the ADA Festival to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the All My Relatives Festival with SDSU’s Wokini Initiative.

Levitt at the Falls also recently broke ground on its expansion which will add artist green rooms and dressing spaces in addition to office and indoor programming spaces.

Butterfly Garden Construction to Begin Next Month

With the merger between the Great Plains Zoo and the Butterfly House & Aquarium, the newly formed Sioux Falls Zoo & Aquarium recently announced that construction of the butterfly garden on the zoo campus will begin in October. The 5,000 square foot garden is expected to open in early 2027 and will include lush plants, a Falls Park-inspired water feature, and more.

In Spring 2026, construction of a 12,000 square foot education center is expected to begin, and a 35,000 square foot aquarium is scheduled to begin construction in Summer 2026, with both slated to open in 2028.