Hosting Illinois Dmos CEO Letter
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
QUARTERLY REPORT—JANUARY 2017 REPORTING FISCAL YEAR 2017 | 2ND QUARTER | OCTOBER–DECEMBER 2016 TABLE OF CONTENTS Hosting Illinois DMOs CEO Letter ................................ 2 The 40 destination management organizations (DMOs) and other members of Illinois Visitor Inquiries .......................... 2 Council on Convention and Visitors Bureaus (ICCVB) meet three times a year for Here, There & Everywhere ......... 3–4 educational sessions, business meetings, networking and idea-sharing. On October 12–14, Visit Champaign County hosted a successful ICCVB Fall Conference at the Hyatt Hotel/Motel Information ............. 4 Place. Sales & Marketing Efforts ........... 4–5 Membership meetings traditionally consist of various niche meetings for Tour, Sports, Website Statistics ...................... 6 Meet, Finance & Administration and Market, as well as a joint session prior to CEO meetings. For the fall conference, the ICCVB Board of Directors in conjunction with Visit Champaign County strived to alter the format to provide more time for education for all attendees through engaging topics and speakers. Visit Champaign County took the lead in creating a program that would interest and educate the majority of DMO’s across Illinois. Attendees participated in educational sessions focusing on: • Illinois: Are You Up for Amazing?—Illinois Office of Tourism Director Cory Jobe • Servicing: Who Does it Best? Roundtable • FLSA Regulation Changes and 2016 Changes to Illinois Employment Statutes—David Krchak at Thomas, Mamer & Haughey • Art Lives Here!—David Wilcoxen, Public Art League; and Kelly White, 40 North | 88 West • The Impact of Film on Your Destination—Christine Dudley and Louis Ferrera, Illinois Film Office; Brett Hays, Shatterglass Films; and Terri Reifsteck, Visit Champaign County/Champaign County Film Office • Project Time Off—Cory Jobe, Illinois Office of Tourism Additionally, niche meetings were held with the Tour Illinois meeting featuring a tour of the Virginia Theatre and the Sports Illinois meeting featuring a tour of Memorial Stadium. Attendees were treated to a delicious dinner and night out at Pear Tree Estate with Champaign County themed beverages, and escape room from C-U Adventures in Time and Space, and caricatures by Dan Wild. Following the event, attendees headed to downtown Champaign for a Savor the Flavor, redeeming their tickets at various downtown bars and restaurants. The second night of the conference featured the CEO dinner at Willow Creek Farm, a unique on-farm dining experience for our counterparts across Illinois. It was followed up the next day with an exceptional panel on Advocacy—Becoming a Priority Instead of a Casualty featuring Deborah Frank Feinen, Mayor, City of Champaign; Chapin Rose, Illinois State Senator, 51st District; Laura Weis, President & CEO, Champaign County Chamber of Commerce; moderated by Tim Hennessy, Consulting4Biz. The meeting was met with tremendous positive feedback from our counterparts and I am sure everyone on your staff invested a great deal of time into the allowed the team at Visit Champaign County programming and evening events, and it showed. Both dinners were truly to showcase why our community is Outside special. It was fun to participate in the Culinary Crawl promotion you run. We of Ordinary! enjoyed stopping in a couple local establishments to get the “flavor” of downtown “Champaign. It’s nice to see it’s busy around town. The Willow Creek Farm was a beautiful setting and the back story is so inspiring. The meal was wonderful too. The sessions on the arts and film offices were both fascinating and applicable for all the CVBs in attendance. The Advocacy panelists were also terrific. Tim did a nice job serving as the moderator. I always enjoying visiting college towns. There is something about the vibe that is very enticing and it’s evident in Champaign.” —Maureen Riedy, President, Visit Lake County NOTE FROM OUR CEO The second quarter of each fiscal year is my favorite weather-wise, followed by the holiday season! People tend to be more giving and grateful for connections all around them, often resulting in synergistic efforts. Destination management brings people together for synergy targeted to specific market segments and providing services 40 North Update for those segments. If environmental, cultural and economic The annual ACE Awards, hosted by 40 North, held October 27 impacts of tourism destinations are managed with the at the City Center honored seven individuals and organizations right balance, many benefits can be realized both for local contributing to the arts and culture of Champaign County. The communities and visitors who choose to experience these winners included: Mike Ingram, Advocate; Deke Weaver, Artist; destinations. Pecha Kucha Night C-U, Volunteer; Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District, Business; Stacey Gross, Teacher; Saskia Bakker, During the ICCVB Fall Conference, we brought together Student; and this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award went our statewide tourism colleagues for education and to longtime ballroom dancing teacher, Aurora Villacorta networking. I was really proud of our program (Miss V.) line up and already have experienced follow-up synergy happening with other communities, New Office Manager specifically related to film, the arts, and Visit Champaign County welcomed Jen Peddycoart advocacy. as our new Office Manager starting November 21. Jen comes to us after several years at Champaign On a national level, Joe and I co-presented Unit 4 Schools. She hit the ground running her first “Destination 2020: Recreation & Tourism Trends” week with IHSA State Football Championships serving at the NRPA National Congress in St. Louis. The up hundreds of bags of popcorn. We’re excited to have discussion in the room with colleagues around the her on our team! USA centered on the value of parks and tourism working together to build destinations. So let’s build synergy and send CUDO Pro Show people home with memories. The Champaign Urbana Design Organization (CUDO) annually Another synergistic effort hosts their Pro Show at Gallery 217, highlighting local graphic occurred with the Champaign artists and designers. Visit Champaign County submitted their County First Lobby Day on new “Outside of Ordinary” branding, featuring bus boards, November 29 to Springfield. billboards, retargeting ads, social media graphics, print ads and Our group of public and the Champaign County Area Visitors Guide. We were excited to private business members met be among many talented artists from with Illinois Dept of Natural around Champaign-Urbana! Resources, IL Dept of Transportation, IL Dept of Commerce & Economic Opportunity and with each of our state legislators. Truly VISITOR INQUIRIES a great day of synergy for success. 1st QTR 2nd QTR Back to talking about the holidays, our VCC Board Web, Mail, Email 139 57 and team celebrated at Urbana Country Club and our VCC Foundation Board at V Picasso. There were many Phone 404 547 other holiday celebrations that once again remind us Welcome Center 44 32 that we truly live in an outside of ordinary community. TICs & Local Bus.* 16,087 12,746 We extend our thanks to our destination management Grand Total 16,674 13,382 partners and hospitality industry job force who support VCC efforts and we look forward to your continued We collect data on how many information requests we receive via our various involvement. It takes a unified effort to invest in a methods of communication: web, mail, email, phone and Welcome Center walk-ins. destination’s economic growth and community well- being. We are making good progress! *TICs (Illinois Interstates, Market Place Mall, Willard Airport, Illinois Terminal) are off-site locations where we distribute Visitors Guides. Additionally, Visit Champaign Jayne DeLuce County weekly supplies local businesses with guides. This number reflects the combined amount of Visitors Guides distributed. 2 | January 2017 | visitchampaigncounty.org Here, There & Everywhere IHSA FOOTBALL STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS The Illinois High School Association (IHSA) State Football Championships returned to Memorial Stadium after a year away. Sixteen teams arrived to compete and while only eight would go home champions, Champaign County was the biggest winner of them all with an estimated $3 million in economic impact. Over 22,000 football fans descended on Champaign County during Thanksgiving weekend to cheer on their team and take part in Tent City. This year’s event took place in Grange Grove with a new setup, making it easy to access Visit Champaign County’s entertainment tent and Memorial On behalf of Loyola Academy, thank you for your Stadium. To further engage attendees, we hosted a live Instagram feed on hospitality and help this past Saturday at the State Football games in Champaign. While our the scoreboard with over 2200 photos using #IHSAState! Thank you to all boys did not get the win on the field and while board members and volunteers who assisted with preparing popcorn, cotton “they are still licking their wounds and feeling a candy, coffee and hot cocoa. little sorry for themselves, I know they will soon look back on their experience and realize how cool and fun it was. It takes a lot to pull off a day like Saturday and your efforts really go a long way in making the experience for our school community so rewarding.” —Patrick Mahoney, Director of Athletics, Loyola Academy “The set up you have is absolutely tremendous! I was really impressed with having a person assigned to us. He stayed with me from the time I showed up, until I left that night helping with every possible detail. I was impressed with the ACO TOURNAMENT help with security provided in the stadium. I was The American Cornhole Organization (ACO) visited Champaign County really impressed with tent city. That is a fabulous November 11–12 for their first successful Midwest event! 120 competitors idea. My parents really enjoyed that space and travelled from over a dozen different states to compete in cornhole—also the award was nice too! My team was well taken care of with facilities and the atmosphere for the known as bags—at the Titan Warehouse in Champaign.