ICCVB Applauds Governor Pritzker’s Efforts to Re-Ignite Illinois Tourism After Budget Address

February 02, 2022

The following is a statement from Dave Herrell, Board Chair of the Illinois Council of Convention & Visitor Bureaus (ICCVB) and President and CEO of Visit Quad Cities:

“Destination organizations from every corner of Illinois continue to drive economic recovery through increasing tourism in the most challenging circumstances our industry has ever faced. ICCVB is grateful for Governor J.B. Pritzker’s support and investment in tourism’s recovery. The governor and our state legislators understand that tourism’s positive impact and revenue creation is critical now and in the future. Today’s budget address made it clear that funding tourism is essential to our State’s broader economic recovery. We have a long road ahead of us but investing in tourism and promotion of Illinois is the right move to get us back to pre-pandemic numbers.

Tourism is one of Illinois' largest industries, supporting our local small businesses and jobs for our workforce, and our communities and families. We still have much more to do to reach pre-pandemic levels and are committed to doing so because we believe that through this work, visitors will travel to Illinois and experience the amazing things we have to offer, and our economy will begin to rebuild once again. Investing in tourism produces results and a return. We need leisure travel along with group, meetings, and sports to thrive as we compete against other states and communities on the national stage.  

We look forward to working with state officials, the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, Illinois Office of Tourism, and other industry partners to achieve this goal because we know tourism is essential to Illinois’ recovery.”