The 2009 Solheim Cup: A hole in one for the Aurora Area!
Conditions could not have been more perfect the week of Aug. 17 when the women of the LPGA and LET breezed into the Aurora Area leaving the fan breathless—and a significant economic impact in their wake.
The 2009 Solheim Cup was not only a huge success—it broke multiple records! Over 120,000 attendees traveled from 50 states and 11 countries to lay their heads throughout 8,000 hotel room nights during the week of Aug. 17-23.
What does that mean for our area? Conservative industry estimates would equate each person’s spending at about $256 each day—meaning over $30 million dollars were spent during the week in the Fox River Valley!
In comparison, the 2005 Solheim Cup (in Indiana) logged in 100,000 attendees—reflecting a nearly 14% increase. The gift shops sold out merchandise in a record three days. The volunteers at the combined tent of the Aurora Area CVB, the City of Aurora, the Village of Sugar Grove, the Greater Aurora Chamber, the Sugar Grove EDC and the Sugar Grove Chamber, distributed over 5,000 commemorative autograph posters and passed out over 1,000 Visitors Guides. We also booked over 100 tee times, dinner reservations or on-site hotel registrations.
The Bureau utilized this high-profile event to court key sports rights holders such as AAU Junior Golf, National CheerStar, USA Shooting and members of the 2016 Olympic Committee. One site visit, as well as several verbal confirmations of future sports events have been made—a direct impact of the Solheim Cup!
State of Illinois Tourism Director Jan Kostner made an appearance and spoke with media about the importance of sports events as an economic engine. Speaking of media, were you aware that a simple Google search produced over 10,600 online mentions for Solheim Cup and Aurora and over 62,200 online mentions for Solheim Cup and Sugar Grove? Pretty amazing. In addition to the media corps Solheim garnered, we entertained several travel writers including two independent freelancers and reps from Global Traveler magazine, Matador Sports, the Chicago Tribune, the Daily Herald and the Beacon News.
Our hotels, restaurants, retail outlets were brimming with visitors, plus we have the promise of hosting national youth sports’ future events in our area. The media exposure this event garnered – huge. We’d say Solheim was a hole in one.
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Make us a deal!
Businesses are utilizing social media to tout their specials/products, fortify their brand and gain critical—and free—exposure. Here at the AACVB, we've been tweeting away and finding friends on Facebook as well as, continuing our e-marketing efforts like e-blasts, cell phone text messages and our consumer e-newsletter.
Do you have a smoking hotel rate you’d like to promote during slow season? Does your attraction need to fill more seats for a performance? Are you offering a half-off ticket deal? Let us know. We will gladly shoot out e-blasts, craft press releases, punch in text messages and hawk your product all over FB and Twitter!
To best utilize social media, here are some tips to ensure the right message is delivered through the right channel:
• Tweet when your deals/promotions are more immediate and time-sensitive such as the incredible pumpkin ravioli on special that night.
• Facebook is an awesome tool to let people know what’s happening at your place about a week before the promotion. Users don’t tend to frequent FB as frequently, so your message carries shelf life.
• Use FB to invite your “friends” to an event, which you can then track online. Plus, other can see who’s coming, too, which creates buzz.
• Update Twitter at least once a day, twice being better. On average, most people check their Tweets in the morning and late afternoon. Be conscience of when your fans are online.
• At first, weekly Facebook posts are fine. Working up to daily messages is a fairly attainable goal that can be done quickly.
• Retweet when you can; you have a better chance of getting a retweet in kind.
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Dynamic Distribution
The East Bank Club. The Museum of Contemporary Art. The Rock ‘n’ Roll McDonalds. Presidential Towers. Fox & Obell Market. Lake Point Towers. Lake of the Ozarks State Park. Do these places sound familiar? They should, because you’re in them!
This year, the AACVB signed on with Skokie-based JWD Distribution for our Visitors Guide to be placed in hundreds of high-traffic, high-end hotels, attractions, restaurants, markets, museums and more. The distribution channels included: southern Illinois; the St. Louis area (Jefferson City, too); southern Wisconsin (including the Dells, Madison and Milwaukee); the I-55 South corridor; Rosemont; Oak Park and Evanston—not to mention a host of hot spots in Chicago.
We even had exclusive news boxes brimming with VG’s at tourist magnets (Navy Pier entrance, across from Trump Tower, entrance to Union Station, etc.). We’ve gotten positive feedback from concierges, business owners and even tourists e-mailing or calling on the quality of the Guide and the surprise of all the Aurora Area has to offer.
One e-mailer wrote, “We are glad that you decided to get the word out to Oak Park. After years of going to Galena, the Dells, Lake Geneva and other such places, it is so refreshing to have another option, a better option even closer.”
Pull quote: Skokie-based JWD Distribution placed our Visitors Guide in hundreds of high-traffic, high-end venues.
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Increase in visitor spending in Kane and Kendall counties
Increase in visitor spending in Kane and Kendall counties
According to the recently released Economic Impact of Travel on Illinois Counties (Illinois Bureau of Tourism), tourism-generated revenue went up in 2008.
Visitors’ spending in Kendall reflected a 5.7% increase, from $34 to $36 million while in Kane County, visitor spending reached $398.77 million—up from $397.28 in 2008 (0.4% increase). Kane County moved up to fifth place in the state in visitor spending in 2007.
“To continue to reflect an increase in visitor spending during these hard times is unbelievable,” said AACVB President/CEO Sue Vos, “
The impact of tourism and travel-related spending impacts the local economy in a myriad of ways. In Kane and Kendall counties combined, over 4,200 hospitality-related jobs exist, such as hotels, entertainment and recreation, travel planning and both auto and public transportation, equating to over $103 million spent on payroll.
State and local tax revenues generated from revenues attributed to travel spending in Illinois and locally. In Kendall County, over $2,000 was generated in state tax receipts, while $570 was collected locally. Kane numbers reflected a slight decrease from $17,870 to $17,770,
a -0.6% dip and a -1.5% decline locally, from $8,700 to $8,560.
“In 2008, we ran strong, focused and targeted marketing campaigns,” said AACVB Public Relations & Marketing Director Laurie DiBerardino. “We’ve got amazing things to promote in the Aurora Area,” said DiBerardino.
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