By Dave Dahl
SPRINGFIELD – Competing tourism agencies are now collaborating as Illinois commerce gradually re-opens.
Springfield Convention and Visitors Bureau sales and marketing director Amy Beadle says similar bureaus around the state have formed Market Illinois.
“Each Tuesday until Labor Day,” says Beadle,” we will post a blog on all of our social media and web sites, independently, that will essentially advertise the entire state. This week it’s hiking and biking trails. Next week: outdoor public gardens. Maybe it’s ice cream shops. Maybe it’s farmers’ markets. Normally we would not think of those things as a tourism draw; we would think of them as a local draw. But, at this point, people are going out to do small things.”
In other words, Beadle says, everything’s a big deal, whether it had ever been or not.
Beadle says what’s being promoted now is the getaway within a 200-mile drive. And anything outdoors is perceived now as being safer because of the pandemic.
Dave Dahl can be reached at news@wjbc.com
