Winona lands on Expedia list for top tourist cities in U.S.

Winona’s visitor bureau said the
joke city is the Miami of Minnesota 

Winona has landed on Expedia’s list of Top 16 most tourist friendly cities in the U.S.

The website doesn’t actually rank the towns from No. 1 to 16. Winona fell somewhere in the middle, right next to – but above on the site – New Orleans.

“It’s something we were not expecting but we are delighted to have that endorsement,” Pat Mutter with the Visit Winona bureau, said.

Here’s the rating criteria based on 1 to 5 stars:

• Helpful tourism board
• Things to do
• Quantity/quality of hotel options
• Access to an airport or major transit center
• City/discovery tours
• Amenities and weather ratings*

Winona, of course, got its worst rating for weather, though Mutter said, “we laugh and joke about it, that we’re the Miami of Minnesota,” referring to how the city is a tad warmer than the rest of the state.

Here’s how Winona fared:

The first city on the list was Bozeman, Mont., while Buffalo/Niagara, NY, was at the bottom of the list — with Winona four up from there. Still, there’s no telling if the list is in any particular order.