Study warns of detrimental effects of cuts to Illinois tourism marketing

These are unprecedented times in Illinois for tourism. With the current budget stalemate, funding to market Chicagoland to convention and leisure visitors was delayed from July 2015 until after January 2016, disrupting a continued promotion of our local region.

Funding for promotion of Illinois as a destination is still largely held up in the fiscal year 2016 budget dispute.

As we stand on the edge of potential budget impasse moving into a second year, a new study on the importance of funding for marketing the state and our region has been released revealing the detrimental impact to the Illinois and Chicagoland economies of sustained budget cuts to Illinois tourism marketing.

The study was conducted by Tourism Economics, one of world's leading providers of economic analysis, and forecast devastating consequences to the Illinois economy if budget cuts take place.

Tourism Economics' findings outline that reductions to state tourism funding would cause Illinois to lose substantial amounts of visitor spending, cost Illinois residents jobs and income, and result in a net state tax loss as state tax revenues would decline by more than the direct budget saving.

The research, simulating the economic impact of a full reduction and a 20 percent reduction in Illinois tourism marketing spending over a period of four years, is very eye opening. Here is a quick overview:

The potential effect to Northeast Illinois and other regions throughout the state were also simulated in the review. With a partial funding cut, Northeast Illinois would lose $1.8 billion of visitor spending.

With a full funding cut, each Illinois region would experience an even greater decline in visitor spending and employment relative to the baseline.

Most upsetting for those of us in hospitality is the potential losses to jobs. Especially as Illinois has seen a 14.8 percent growth in the leisure and hospitality job sector since 2001. Consider that the leisure & hospitality sector ranks in fifth place for jobs in the United States. Even more upsetting is to consider the potential devastation to employees' families. Take a look at how we compare:

The good news is that the travel and tourism industry is a smart investment and has a local effect. For every $1 spent in tourism advertising, Illinois has seen a $266 return on investment. Regional economies rely on destination marketing funding to attract visitor, increase average length of stay and encourage repeat visits. For example, 5.2 million group hotel room bookings generated by local Illinois convention & tourism bureaus occurred in 2014.

Yes, this has been an unprecedented year in Illinois. As a reader interested in hospitality, I invite you to become a tourism champion to support our industry and the jobs that rely on it.

To learn more about the study, the full report on the competitive analysis of Illinois Tourism funding can be found at www.iccvb.org/tourismmatters.

• Dave Parulo is president of Meet Chicago Northwest.