Downers Grove & DuPage County team up for tourism

OAK BROOK, Ill. – The DuPage Convention & Visitors Bureau (DuPage CVB) and the Downers Grove Visitors Bureau (DGVB) are pleased to announce that they have forged a new partnership today in an ongoing effort to grow the $2.5 billion tourism and visitors industry in DuPage County. The DGVB is a component of the Downers Grove Economic Development Corporation (DGEDC).

“This is an exciting opportunity for collaboration with the DuPage Convention & Visitors Bureau,” said Downers Grove Mayor Martin Tully.  “We look forward to building a strong partnership that will benefit both our community and DuPage County.”

The new partnership will give Downers Grove exposure in county-wide sales initiatives and will open the door for county led marketing and tourism development efforts for Downers Grove hotels and businesses.

 “This strategic partnership represents a win-win for Downers Grove and the DuPage CVB,” said Michael Cassa, president and CEO of the DGEDC and the Downers Grove Visitors Bureau.

For nearly a year, the DuPage CVB has been working on a new strategic roadmap that will help expand tourism countywide. The plan, called “GPS: A Tourism Roadmap,” will help the county grow their market share leading to more prosperous communities that reap the benefits of a strong industry. Each community has unique offerings and the collaboration and sharing of those offerings is imperative to the overall image of DuPage County to visitors.

While tourism in DuPage accounts for nearly 22,000 jobs worth $600 million in payrolls, market share has shrunk as other locations around the country have aggressively fought for more of the tourism pie. The market share loss translates to $27 million that was not spent and $500,000 in tax revenue that was not collected in DuPage County. Better collaboration between communities in DuPage is one of the keys to growing market share.

 “DuPage County has 38 communities. It is vital that we unite internally to compete externally for tourism and convention dollars,” said DuPage CVB Executive Director Beth Marchetti.

Community and industry input has been critical in the development of the GPS Roadmap. Workshops were held in Naperville, Elmhurst, and Glen Ellyn over the summer of 2016 where residents, business owners, governmental entities and more gathered to discuss and brainstorm how to make DuPage a destination market.  A diverse advisory board has also been involved in crafting the GPS Roadmap.

“DuPage CVB communities vary in many ways. Everyone must realize that we aren’t competing with one another but with destinations outside of DuPage,” said Marchetti. “A leisure traveler in DuPage might spend the morning having breakfast in one of our communities, the afternoon in a forest preserve in a different community, and the evening having dinner in a third community. If we think regionally, like a visitor, everyone wins.”