Condition launches $6 million tourism campaign aimed at boosting put up-pandemic journey Capitolnewsillinois.com



Gov. JB Pritzker announces a new condition promoting marketing campaign Wednesday at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library in Springfield, an exertion to get persons from bordering states to acquire a road journey to the Prairie State. (Capitol Information Illinois photo by Jerry Nowicki)

Multi-system marketing campaign aims to attract people and spark vacation
By TIM KIRSININKAS

Capitol Information Illinois

[email protected]


SPRINGFIELD – Gov. JB Pritzker introduced a new $6 million tourism advertising and marketing campaign Wednesday aimed at attracting website visitors to the state and sparking financial activity next the COVID-19 pandemic.


The multimedia marketing campaign, showcased all over the topic “Time for Me to Drive,” showcases various destinations in all areas of the point out and aims to replicate Illinois as a prime location for highway excursions.


In accordance to a information launch, the marketing campaign displays growing client trends to get shorter trips by car to destinations closer to residence following the pandemic. The marketing campaign is the initial to be released by the state since the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic final 12 months.


“More and a lot more travelers are ready to get back again out there. Latest surveys exhibit that 50 percent of Us citizens prepare to journey this summer season, and 50 % of them intend to push,” Pritzker stated Wednesday at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library in Springfield. “So, no matter whether you want to simplicity your way back into vacation or are raring to go, taking the good American road journey is a terrific way to appreciate you and to stay secure.”


Pritzker reported the new marketing campaign introduces travellers to “an Illinois they may perhaps not have observed before,” which include locations these as point out parks, the Shawnee National Forest and the Garden of the Gods.


The marketing campaign also encourages the metropolitan areas of Chicago, Springfield and Galena as opportunity highway vacation places.


Sylvia Garcia, performing director of the state’s Division of Commerce and Economic Possibility, claimed prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Illinois saw around 120 million readers every year who collectively expended far more than $40 billion in the state.


Garcia reported people numbers have been “cut in half” as a consequence of the pandemic previous yr.


“(The) Time for Me to Push marketing campaign is not only a milestone in bringing tourism back again for this summer season, it is also section of our ongoing operate in direction of a powerful recovery for the tourism marketplace about the extensive phrase,” Garcia reported.


The marketing campaign includes tv, radio, electronic and print spots. Garcia said the campaign would principally be demonstrated in the seven states surrounding Illinois and 18 overall markets.


Michael Jacobson, president and CEO of the Illinois Hotel and Lodging Association, stated endorsing tourism in the state “puts people back to work” and will be significant to the state’s financial recovery subsequent the pandemic.


“What individuals hardly ever recognize is that an financial investment in tourism marketing is an expense in economic progress,” Jacobson said.


“Promoting tourism assists our economic climate by obtaining website visitors to remain in our accommodations, to try to eat in our places to eat, shop in our retail stores, invest in gasoline in our gasoline stations, and delight in our wonderful points of interest,” he extra.


Jacobson mentioned 20,000 lodge employees are nonetheless out of operate pursuing pandemic-associated closures and shutdowns, and that marketing tourism would be critical to raising tax earnings in the point out.


Jayne DeLuce, president and CEO of the Illinois Council of Convention and Visitor Bureaus, explained the return on expenditure for desired destination advertising drives $11 in tax revenue for every single marketing greenback expended.


“Beyond generating priceless recollections, these street trip activities produce an quick infusion of income in the tourism economic climate, which has been so decimated by the pandemic,” DeLuce explained.




Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news provider masking point out govt and dispersed to a lot more than 400 newspapers statewide. It is funded generally by the Illinois Push Basis and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.


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