IDNR official says numbers increased last year

Posted on June 11, 2021
One difference: Illinois state parks are still free to visit. (Facebook/Illinois Department of Natural Resources Conservation Police)

By Dave Dahl

SPRINGFIELD – The damage the pandemic did to the travel industry depends on whom you ask. Department of Natural Resources chief of staff Kristin DiCenso …

“Illinois state parks, fish / wildlife, recreational, and historic sites saw 26.7 million visitors in June through December 2019,” DiCenso told the state Senate Tourism Committee Thursday. “For the same time period in 2020: 28.4 million visitors.

“So we actually increased our visitors last year.”

Cory Jobe, a former state tourism director and Navy Pier marketing executive who now runs a tourism bureau for six southwestern Illinois counties, countered, “Here in Illinois, traveler spending was down 50 percent v 2019 due to the decline in traveler spending, federal, state, and local tax receipts declined by 41 percent.”

One difference: Illinois state parks are still free to visit.

Dave Dahl can be reached at [email protected]

Blogs

Labor Day – Expanding voting rights for all

By Mike Matejka Because of COVID, there is no Labor Day Parade this year.  It’s always a great event for our everyday workers to march proudly down the street and enjoys the festive crowd. If there had been a parade, this year’s Labor Day theme was to be “150 years of struggle: your right to vote.” …

Is federal mobilization the answer?

By Mike Matejka As President Donald Trump threatens to send federal marshals into Chicago, over the objections of Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, recall another Illinois Governor who protested the incursion of armed federal personnel into the city.   Those federal troops, rather than calming, escalated the situation, leading to deaths and violence. Illinois poet Vachel Lindsay…

In these troubled times, to my fellow white Americans

By Mike Matejka Our nation is at a unique watershed in human relations. African-Americans have been killed too many times in the past before George Floyd, but the response to this man’s death is international and all-encompassing. I was a grade-schooler during the Civil Rights 1960s. I watched Birmingham demonstrators hosed and the Selma – Montgomery…

Workers’ Memorial Day – Remember those whose job took their life

Looking around our community, when we say employer, most will respond to State Farm, Country, or Illinois State University.   We too often forget those who are building our roads, serving our food, or our public employees. COVID-19 has made us more aware of the risk.  Going to work every day for some people means…