Westin convinces Wheeling to join North Shore convention bureau

Wheeling officials have enlisted a tourism bureau to attract convention goers willing to spend on the village's luxury hotels and “Restaurant Row” on Milwaukee Avenue.

Trustees this week agreed to shell out $114,475 from the village's general fund to join the Chicago's North Shore Convention & Visitors Bureau. The annual dues are expected to drop to about $81,075 in 2016-17.

The 3½-year agreement comes at the request of Westin Chicago North Shore management, who told trustees in June that the hotel is the only one of its kind in the Chicago area without a backer in the form of a convention bureau. Wheeling has never joined one, instead relying on village staff to draw tourists to town.

“Hotel occupancies are rising. Corporate patronage is rising,” says John Melaniphy, the village's economic director. “We see the convention bureau as another vehicle to spread our marketing dollars and reach a wider audience to promote our restaurants and hotels.”

The bureau mostly represents suburbs east of the Tri-State Tollway. The exceptions? Prospect Heights, and now, Wheeling. The village interviewed a second bureau, Meet Chicago Northwest, that counts Wheeling's neighbor, Arlington Heights, among its eight suburban clients.

But branding, not geography, made North Shore the top choice. That name aligns with the Westin's, although the bureau is tasked with marketing all 571 hotel rooms in Wheeling.

Bringing in new members is a rarity for the well-established groups. The last to join Meet Chicago Northwest was the village of Itasca, which rejoined the group, then called Woodfield Chicago Northwest Convention Bureau, a few years ago. But that group's leaders say they don't consider Wheeling's decision to join the other group a loss.

“Convention bureaus are regional marketing organizations,” said Dave Parulo, president of the Schaumburg-based bureau. “We are strategically formed to market and sell our particular region. By and large, our goal is to bring visitors into Illinois from outside the state, not to be competing against each other locally.”

The Skokie-based North Shore bureau, and management from the Westin and Hawthorn Suites, the village's biggest hotels, will work on a strategy targeting conventions and trade shows. With a $1.3 million budget funded in part by a state grant, the bureau typically works to snag meetings and group tours of up to 350 people.

Melaniphy said he wants to see more corporate events that bring higher income professionals and their wallets to Wheeling eateries and shops. The result: more sales tax dollars.

“We simply want to amplify that and enhance the general attraction of Wheeling,” he said.