National Travel and Tourism Week

back it's national travel and tourism week and the Peoria Area Convention and Visitors Bureau has a recovery plan as the city looks at the post covin nineteen world here to tell us more is jadeed Alfonso the president CEO of the Peoria Area Convention and Visitors Bureau good morning

JD morning mark thank you for having me today thanks for coming on so you know we all want to do what we can to promote Peoria and tourism and everything else but obviously in the world we're living in now that's not very easy what are some things that

we can do from home or over the computer to help out absolutely thanks yeah and that's one of the great things we've seen in the Peoria Area is everybody's willingness to promote Peoria despite the times and so national travel and tourism week is celebrating the spirit of travel

in the sense that we can't travel in the traditional sense right now despite all of us probably wondering a vacation or needing to travel one way or another so we're promoting the fuer area during this week just during our stay at home restrictions still we were able to

get out still a hike bike bird wash even golf is is able to open a little bit and we still encourage people do grab and go options to support local businesses here locally so more than just that you can also talk positively on social media there's a lot

of encouragement going out it's like the times and more we can do that I think the better we will be throughout this and of course dreaming towards the future in which we can travel once again so it should still be an exciting week by not being on the

travel in the sense we're where you do yeah I was gonna ask you about social media it seems like a free and easy way to promote the area do you recommend any any specific hashtags or things that people may include when they post photos of where they've been

yeah well our region has been great with helping out small businesses particularly in food and beverage you know that's a large part of hospitality I know enjoy Peoria but out a number of graphics of Keep Calm and Carry out Morton Washington Pekin East Peoria and Peoria so I've

been using those whenever I can support businesses around the region I feel free to do that we found on our website or our Facebook page but keep calm and carry out spirit of travel spirit or hashtag Peoria hashtag injure Peoria it keeps a conversation going we'll be happy

to share that for you as well we're monitoring those and more we can spread that positive conversation we're all for it so we'll help you out getting that message out I've got to ask you about the governor's comments yesterday about slowly reopening Illinois in phases you know they

did mention that large festivals conventions those kind of things are out how does that affect how you all are working in your organization to bring publicity and people to our area yes it's a large part of our business in the sense that Tory is a meeting destination on

the assets that we have with pure a Civic Center and our hotels that provide an excellent convention space you know meetings is kind of the the segment that pure is known for across the state of Illinois so we're keeping a close eye and and and making sure that

we're up to date on what the governor is saying up obviously it's a little encouraging with the sense that we can open up in phases but I think we still need some more details as to how we can typically do that and so throughout that span we'll continue

to work with our local legislators and you know the state our state entities that we work with the Illinois Office of Tourism has been a great support throughout these times so I'll continue to monitor as we Steve things change state day and hopefully be a helping hand in

any way Peoria can be towards opening up opportunities for meetings conventions and a large-scale event so we're looking forward to those days ed all right JD we appreciate your time thank you thank you very much