Caught on the news today that the state has doubled the amount it spends promoting tourism in Southern Illinois which is good. How does Carbondale cash in on this? Despite what it might think or want, Carbondale is not a tourist town. People visit Carbondale for two main reasons: SIUC or health care. Which is fine. There is nothing wrong with people coming to town for those two reasons. Their money is good and they spend it in hotels and restaurants.
What Carbondale Tourism should do, and since this advice is free take it for what it is worth, is position itself as the place to stay while taking advantage of the outdoor opportunities in Southern Illinois. it is easier to get to the Shawnee here than it is from Marion and it is also easier to get to the Southern Illinois Wine Trail(s) as well. Promote Carbondale as the place to stay while enjoying those, not as a tourist destination in itself.
It is certainly possible to make Carbondale a tourist destination but it will take years and a concerted effort on the part of the city to make us a desirable place for tourists to visit.
To make "the city a desirable place for tourists to visit" dealing with the current high crime rate is a necessity.
ReplyDeleteI think this is exactly what is currently occurring. And the average Carbondalian doesn't yet know it. I also believe its the future of Carbondale. It will likely always be third behind SIUC and SIH but i believe it will be the fastest growing segment of Carbondale for years to come.
ReplyDeletePositioning Carbondale as a place for tourists to stay, eat, drink, etc is essentially the same thing as positioning itself as a tourist town. It's guiding the town and business leaders to understand who our customers are and what they are doing here. If we can get them to stay for two or three hours longer by walking down the strip, buying a comic book, donut, etc that essentially creates a tourist environment.
Whats the biggest current issue? There is not enough nice places for these tourists to stay. They don't want to stay in 1 star hotels. They are demanding better accommodations and right now the Murhysboro Holiday Inn is taking a good number of visitors that would prefer to stay in Carbondale but the hotels aren't nice enough.
We are slowly renovating buildings to accommodate tourists but its a slow process.
Fair enough. I have said for years the problem with downtown is that it is not walkable nor shopable. There are comparatively few retail stores at which to shop in downtown and they are spread out, making it difficult to walk from one to another
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