Friday, November 10, 2017
With a $35,000 decrease in its marketing budget, the Quad-Cities Convention & Visitors Bureau has made some significant decisions.
The bureau turned down another chance to host the Sports Illinois Huddle, a two-day conference with tourism bureaus and sporting organizations. The bureau hosted the 2017 huddle in May.
With a new estimated $45 million BettPlex sports complex under construction, Joe Taylor, the President and CEO said that it will be important to keep the Quad-Cities “top of mind” as a sporting venue.
Taylor said, “We have to (find new revenue sources) if we want to remain competitive.”
The bureau will discuss new options, including a destination marketing fee added to hotel stays in the Quad-Cities.
“The goal of the partners meeting is to keep the conversation going about destination marketing fees in the Quad-Cities and to see if this is a funding option,” Taylor said.
“The goal is to create funds to make up for the declines in destination marketing funds that really are occurring everywhere,” he said.
Taylor said the bureau and its partners discussed, but dismissed few years back, the idea of creating new Tourism Improvement Districts. Created by law, the districts would generate an extra tax that could be used for special projects. This fee would not be a tax, he said.
