By Eric Stock
BLOOMINGTON – Local tourism officials want more people to travel to the Twin Cities, but lawmakers – they want them in Springfield.
The state’s budget impasse that’s nearly two months old has put funding for tourism marketing on hold. Director of the Bloomington-Normal Convention and Visitors Bureau, Crystal Howard, said that accounts for about 30 percent of the CVB’s budget.
“We’re not sure that we’re not going to get that, we are hoping our legislative leaders will not allow that to happen that they are going to cut tourism funding completely,” Howard said.
The Illinois Council of Convention and Visitors Bureaus has circulated an electronic letter to send to the governor and lawmakers telling them to “Think Outside the Deficit.”
Howard said the budget impasse has forced the group to eliminate marketing for new events and trade shows.
“Anything that is new, if that program doesn’t show a direct return on investment, then probably we are going to eliminate it, ” Howard said.
The local tourism tax in Bloomington-Normal generates about $700,000 a year for the CVB. It reported previously, visitors spend $352.8 million in McLean County last year, a near four-percent increase over 2013. Howard noted the local CVB gets an 800 percent return on investment for each dollar it spends on tourism marketing.
Eric Stock can be reached at [email protected].
