There has recently been much activity on the international tourism front. In addition to a very productive participation at World Travel Market in the UK, two winter campaigns have launched in conjunction with the new and improved International Tourism Web site.

These new campaigns have and will be focused on Germany and the United Kingdom, and will be launched in two flights. The first ran from December 6 through 12; the second will begin in January. Both campaigns will utilize online advertising to direct consumers to our International Tourism Web site, gochicago.com and allow them to book trips immediately.

The UK campaign uses four different creative executions with banner ads that emphasize shopping and post-holiday savings opportunities. The first two have clever word pairings like “tasty prices” and “rocking deals,” followed by a call to action to link to our Web site and “book now.”

The German campaign also focuses on shopping, but uses a different online approach with animation. A bouncing shopping bag appears across the screen teasing viewers with messages of shopping, nightlife and great values in Chicago. This call to action is gochicago.de. Images from both sets of ads are incorporated into the travel package buttons on each site and allow consumers the opportunity to immediately book their trip.

Gochicago.com has been vastly expanded since its launch last July. It is available in both British English and German languages. New features to the site include a Travel Professionals section with travel trade industry-specific information and a direct link to our UK and German Travel Trade offices to assist them as they promote Chicago and Illinois as tourism destinations; a Travel Packages booking site to allow consumers to link and book specially priced packages to Chicago; and a press site where journalists can go directly to the site and download usable press releases in each country and contact our media representation with inquiries. We also look forward to adding a downloadable photo site in the spring.

Beyond our winter consumer campaigns, we recently had a wonderful opportunity to promote Illinois as a tourism destination through our presence at the World Travel Market (WTM) trade show in London. November 2004 marked the show’s 25th anniversary and was a great success. More than 46,000 industry professionals from more than 190 countries attended. Illinois hosted a breakfast reception to promote the spring opening of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum with nearly 20 media outlets in attendance, followed by individual interviews. Continued >

Industry Insider: Susan Mogerman

To help you get to know who’s who in Illinois tourism, ITN profiles an industry leader each month. This month, we introduce Susan Mogerman, Chief Operating Officer of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation.

Barely five months into her new position as chief operating officer of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation, Susan Mogerman is understandably proud of the growing list of Foundation accomplishments and is prepared to tackle the long list of responsibilities that lie ahead.

Upon accepting the job as COO in July, Mogerman realized there would be little time to get organized, with the library scheduled to open in the fall and the long-anticipated completion of the museum projected for the spring of 2005—nine months total to establish an office, hire a full-time professional staff, get a credible database up and running, reactivate fundraising activities after more than a year of dormancy, raise a half million dollars in private funding to pay for the dedication of the museum and approach as many potential donors as possible in the super-charged period leading up to the four-day event celebrating the opening of the Museum.

Today, the office is in high gear. More than 50 presentations, large and small, have been made. With the aid of a new database, unfulfilled pledges have been identified and collections have begun. Mogerman is working with the newly contracted retail store managers as decisions are made on buying and manufacturing merchandise. And, the hunt is on for a restaurateur and/or catering company to provide food service in the museum.

The most daunting goal is the $50 million endowment fund that will pay for a dazzling array of programs envisioned by Library, Museum and Foundation Director Richard Norton Smith to enrich daily operations at the cultural institution, from educational programming to special events, temporary exhibits and more. Even the most rigorous fundraising plans estimate that achieving that goal is years away. But long-range goals are nothing new to Mogerman, who has been involved in the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum for more than a decade.

Mogerman began her government service in 1983 as deputy press secretary to Governor Jim Thompson, following her work as media coordinator for Thompson’s 1982 re-election campaign. “Even back in the ‘80s, people wandered into the press office to complain that President Lincoln didn’t have a library of his own,” Mogerman said. Continued >