SPRINGFIELD, IL – Visit Springfield was honored this week in Peoria with the award for “Best Tourism Marketing Campaign” at the 2024 Illinois Governors Conference on Travel and Tourism.
The award submission highlighted a 24-week Carvertise summer marketing campaign that ran from March to August 2023 in the Kansas City market. During the event, wrapped Uber and Lyft vehicles were rolled out to the market, and four swarm events featuring Visit Springfield vehicles were simultaneously held. . Campaign highlights include the Visit Springfield team and Abraham Lincoln visiting the NFL Draft Fan Experience to take advantage of all the activities Memorial Park has to offer, and hundreds of photos with fans. This included photographing and distributing over 500 marketing materials about Springfield. In this campaign, in 24 weeks he drove 92,207 miles with 6 cars and generated 3,3021,535 impressions of him in Springfield.
The Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity issues a press release announcing that Governor J.B. Pritzker will join tourism professionals from across Illinois at the Illinois Governor's Conference on Travel and Tourism, the state's largest education and networking conference for tourism industry professionals. announced that he had participated. The three-day conference began March 19 at the Peoria Civic Center with the 2024 Illinois Tourism Excellence Awards Ceremony honoring the contributions of Illinois tourism industry leaders. This annual conference, held for the first time in Peoria, brings together more than 360 tourism and hospitality leaders, travel experts, and visionaries to share the latest industry trends and insights that serve Illinois tourism. I will explore.
“As Governor, I have always been proud to boast of Illinois' great tourism industry, which is thriving as a cultural and economic benefit to the state,” said Governor J.B. Pritzker. “Thank you to all the travel and tourism professionals across Illinois who have gone above and beyond to welcome our visitors and make our industry stronger than ever.”
“Illinois' tourism industry continues to be a significant economic driver, with 111 million visitors from around the world spending $44 billion across our great state in 2022,” said Kristin, DCEO Director.・Richards said. “The Illinois Governor's Conference on Travel and Tourism provides an opportunity for industry experts and leaders to share our commitment to promoting economic development in the travel and tourism industry across Illinois.”
“It is an incredible honor to recognize and celebrate our tourism partners from across the state with this year's Illinois Tourism Excellence Awards,” said Daniel Thomas, deputy director of tourism for the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. “These awards reflect our partners’ unwavering commitment to Illinois’ tourism industry, whose hard work and dedication propels Illinois as a premier travel destination.”
Travel and tourism experts from across the industry judged entries in nine categories, from best social media marketing campaign to best event or festival, with one winning entry taking home the top prize. . The Illinois Tourism Board also announced that George Manias, longtime Peoria businessman George's Shoeshine and Hatters, and Roger Carmack, president and CEO of Great Rivers Country announced two Illinois Tourism Legacy Awards.
Each Excellence in Tourism Award category included Budget A, for organizations with an annual operating budget of $750,000 or more, and Budget B, for organizations with a budget of less than $750,000.
Springfield and Sangamon counties generated $536.8 million in tourist spending and $17.2 million in local tax revenue in the last reported year.
