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Tourism agencies face loss of funds
 

By Chris Fusco
Copyright 2001 Chicago Sun-Times, Inc.
Article date: November 8, 2001
 

The state is warning local tourism agencies from Chicago to Carbondale to brace for major funding cuts because of dwindling hotel-motel tax receipts after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

All told, the Illinois Commerce and Community Affairs Department is considering awarding about 20 percent less through its Local Tourism and Convention Bureau program than it did last year, when it provided $13.6 million to 39 agencies.

The grants typically are announced this time of year. "Because of the events of Sept. 11, hotel occupancy rates have gone down," said Brian Reardon, a state commerce department spokesman. "What we're trying to do is make sure we don't overextend ourselves. . . . No final decision has been made."

Local tourism officials, several of whom went to Springfield on Wednesday to lobby against the cuts, said the state is overestimating the impact terrorism will have on travel.

During one week in October, for example, hotel occupancy rates in downtown Chicago topped out at a near-normal 81 percent, said Rachel Crippin Clark, spokeswoman for the Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau.

"It's really rebounding," said Clark, whose organization could lose nearly $500,000 from the state.

Local tourism officials warned that the cuts would hurt advertising budgets and staffing levels at a time when people should be encouraged to travel.

"Even the smallest communities are going to be hit," said Sue Vos, executive director of the Aurora Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, whose agency would lose about $30,000 and would have to fire one of its five full-time staffers.

Rosemont Mayor Donald E. Stephens said his community's convention bureau would lose about $200,000--money that helps attract people to its convention center and hotels.

"Trust me, we're hurting," Stephens said. "We have lost some smaller meetings. And in talking with the hotel people, the business traveler--the guy that comes in for a day or two--that's off substantially."
 

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