As state budget impasse continues, suburban tourism groups take big hits
Suburban tourism and convention bureaus, heavily dependent on state funding, could face a financial crisis by year end if the state budget remains at an impasse.
Schaumburg-based Meet Chicago Northwest, Gurnee-based Visit Lake County, and Oak Brook-based DuPage Convention & Visitors Bureau said their organizations have collectively lost nearly $2 million since July, have instituted hiring freezes and lost some staff. They also worry about future business as millions of dollars worth of events sit in limbo and could hurt local revenues for next year.
"We are a tourism-promotion agency and we need to be able to provide long-term commitments and work with people to build awareness," said Dave Parulo, president of Meet Chicago Northwest. "But building those relationships are difficult, if not impossible, to promote the region while there is so much uncertainty."
The ongoing battle between Gov. Bruce Rauner and state legislators to pass a budget has caused tourism groups statewide to hunker down. The convention bureaus, some of which get about $1 million per year from the state, see the end of the year as a turning point when more drastic cuts may be necessary.
In order to encourage a budget deal and get funding back into their coffers, the suburban groups have united with Choose Chicago and their parent association, Elmhurst-based Illinois Council of Convention and Visitors Bureaus, to encourage taxpayers to sign an online petition. About 1,400 signatures have been collected to date and the goal is 5,000. Choose Chicago then plans to present the petition to Rauner and state legislators with the urgent request to pass a budget and return funding to their groups, said Jack Johnson, senior vice president of public policy for Choose Chicago.
In addition, the groups also will run an advertisement in various Sunday newspapers, including the Daily Herald, that outlines their financial value to the state and a link to the online petition. Another newspaper ad will run in Springfield on Tuesday, when the General Assembly is back in session, Johnson said.
The ad says the "Illinois' tourism industry is at risk." The state last year had 109 million visitors who contributed about $36.3 billion to the economy and supported about 306,000 jobs. But without state funding, the losses could be significant, with the loss of about 11,000 jobs and $42.6 million in lost tax revenue, the ad says.
Funding from the state Office of Tourism, via hotel occupancy taxes, totals about $1 million annually each for Meet Chicago Northwest and for the DuPage Convention & Visitors Bureau. The Lake County group gets about $800,000 annually. They receive the funding in monthly installments, which stopped in July. The likelihood of getting any back pay is unknown, they each said.
Beth Marchetti, executive director of the DuPage Convention & Visitors Bureau, said her group has about $34 million of pending events sitting on their books. Such political uncertainty could cause those events to book elsewhere.
"Illinois has a lot of things to offer these groups, but we are in stiff competition with other states to get that business," Marchetti said. "If something doesn't happen soon, we could lose those events to another state."
In addition, each of the tourism groups said they have stopped hiring to replace any staff. The Lake County bureau was forced to lay off one employee. Choose Chicago laid off 28 workers in October.
While the groups are dipping into their reserves to stay afloat, they each expressed anxiety about what would happen by the end of the year.
"We're now looking at all of our contracts with vendors and we're doing what we can to save money," said Maureen Riedy, president of Visit Lake County.
"We're generating revenue for the region that helps to support a lot of social services here," Riedy said. "We're driving revenue here. If we can't reinvest in our regions, then we cannot depend on visitors to just find us."