Henry County works to build new, professional tourism bureau

CAMBRIDGE, Illinois – Leaders here are pushing ahead with efforts to create a new Henry County Tourism Bureau even as they deal with challenges created by the July 2021 dissolution of the old one. Henry County Administrator Erin Knackstedt and Economic Development Director Jim Kelly are leading the charge to create a robust hybrid destination […]

CAMBRIDGE, Illinois – Leaders here are pushing ahead with efforts to create a new Henry County Tourism Bureau even as they deal with challenges created by the July 2021 dissolution of the old one. Henry County Administrator Erin Knackstedt and Economic Development Director Jim Kelly are leading the charge to create a robust hybrid destination marketing organization they hope will be led by a professional director employed by this county of just under 50,000. A key advantage to that plan, they say, is that as a county employee, the director would be a full-time employee with government benefits not available for a part-timer working at an outside organization. “If we place this in the county, we’re looking for a careerist,” Mr. Kelly said.

 Before any of that can happen, however, Ms. Knackstedt and Mr. Kelly told the QCBJ, the county will need to create the new Henry County Tourism Bureau, then complete what is estimated to be a three-year-long effort to get a new HCTB certified.  That’s due to the need to clear the former HCTB Employee Identification Number (EIN). It was suspended, Ms. Knackstedt and Mr. Kelly said, after the old board failed to file necessary financial paperwork with government authorities. U.S. Rep. Darin LaHood, R-Illinois, is working to help Henry County clear the EIN, Ms. Knackstedt said. Clearance would eventually allow the new bureau to qualify as an official Illinois convention and visitors bureau. Without state certification, the new bureau would miss out on tens of thousands of matching dollars from the Local Tourism and Convention Bureau grant distributed through the Illinois Office of Tourism. In the past, the previous bureau used hotel-motel taxes from Henry County municipalities including Kewanee, Galva and Geneseo to make that match. Mr. Kelly said the county is putting together a plan for operating while it works toward certification. A board has been created and an engaged group of city leaders including mayors, administrators and clerks from each of the county’s communities are meeting regularly to search for financial solutions and talk about what the new HCTB would look like, Mr. Kelly said. Communities covered by the HCTB include Alpha, Andover, Annawan, Atkinson, Bishop Hill, Cambridge, Cleveland, Colona, Galva, Geneseo, Hooppole, Kewanee, Orion and Woodhull. Importantly, too, on Monday, Jan. 23, Henry County sent out a request for qualifications (RFQ) for a nine-month tourism coordinator to help identify strategies to reinvigorate tourism in Henry County. Duties will include updating the Henry County tourism website, developing staffing recommendations and a sustainable funding structure for the bureau. The link to the RFQ can be found here. Funding for the nine-month tourism project is from the Illinois Department of Commerce Economic Opportunity’s Research in Illinois to Spur Economic Recovery (RISE) program. 

Among the qualifications are: Knowledge of Henry County and the tourism industry; ability to collect data from multiple resources, conduct analysis, write reports; previous experience with rural development planning, and or research, report writing; public involvement, and grant writing; and an associate’s degree of bachelor’s degree in economic development, planning, geography, public administration, or similar degree.  The estimated cost for a nine-month project is $45,000 to $50,000 and a travel allowance. The coordinator also will be charged with developing a calendar of all events and identifying ways to package them to increase overnight stays in the county. Mr. Kelly recently created a pamphlet showing what’s coming up in the county for the next several months. But he’s looking forward to seeing what a new coordinator can do to better promote events such as Kewanee Hog Days and attractions including Bishop Hill. “I expect them to embarrass us,” Mr. Kelly said of that new coordinator’s efforts.