By Kathleen Cassedy

When the tourism marketing campaign, Cultural Chicago, rolled out in 1997, it was a logical progression from 1993, when Mayor Richard M. Daley placed the Office of Tourism within the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs. While most American cities leave tourism promotion as a function of their convention and visitors bureaus, Chicago has woven tourism development within the fabric of its city programs that celebrate diversity and community.

"[This structure] really makes sense for Chicago because we have so many cultural attractions that draw people throughout the country and the world," says Dorothy Coyle, Chicago's acting director of tourism.

As Chicago embarks on one of the country's most extensive millennium programs, designed to take place over a three-year period, from 1999 through 2001, both the Mayor's Office and the Department of Cultural Affairs are focused on creating a meaningful celebration for Chicagoans. The millennium celebration will comprise lecture series, school programs, musical programs, neighborhood festivals, and many other activities and galas that are given a millennium theme, every month during the campaign, entitled "Chicago2001, For the Time of Your Life." The tagline serves several purposes: to reflect on the city's legacy, to position the city for the future, and to celebrate.

"We want to build connections for people who live in Chicago with other people who live in Chicago," says Coyle. "Then take that one step beyond, so it becomes neighborhoods connecting with other neighborhoods, then Chicago connecting with the suburban areas, then to other parts of Illinois, then to other parts of the United States.

"While we already do that, we want to expand those relationships and encourage people to work on meaningful projects that will bring them closer together in the next millennium," says Coyle, whose job is to market Chicago2001 outside the city.

"When we create something that Chicagoans enjoy and participate in, then that becomes something that visitors and tourists want to come to," she says.

WORKING TOGETHER

Both the Department of Cultural Affairs and the Office of Tourism work closely with the Illinois Bureau of Tourism and the Mayor's Office of Special Events, which produces community festivals and tourist packages. The state bureau of tourism allocates funding to the Chicago tourism office, and also provides it with advertising and promotion, which often complements campaigns for the rest of the state.

"It's a very unique relationship," explains Donna Shaw, Illinois tourism director. "We are partners in the truest sense in our marketing efforts, working hand-in-hand toward the growth of tourism."

Chicago's Commissioner of Cultural Affairs, Lois Weisberg, was described in a New Yorker profile this past January as a "connector" of people and programs. In fact, the article suggests that because of Weisberg's immense social connections, and her innate talent for organizing people, that she may be the most powerful person in Chicago.

"She has the capability of bringing alliance networks together, and of getting things done in what would appear to be an effortless way," Shaw says.

Shaw and Weisberg partnered to develop the strategy that became Cultural Chicago, based on primary research that showed Chicago is exceptionally positioned to attract "cultural" tourists, who are high-value customers. They stay longer and spend more money in retail, restaurants, and on other activities during their visits.

LEISURE TRAVEL INCREASES

Domestic tourism to the Chicago suburban area was 27.1 million in 1997, up 19 percent from 1996, making it the fifth most city visited by domestic travelers. This includes travelers who are visiting friends and relatives, which comprise 38 percent of leisure travelers. Travel to the city in 1997 increased 3 percent to 14.3 million overnight domestic travelers from the year earlier. Yet in 1997, hotels registered their highest occupancy rate in 20 years, which was 72.9 percent for the city, and 72.5 percent for metropolitan Chicago.

The average length of stay for overnight leisure travelers in 1997 was four days; however, 72 percent of leisure visitors stay one to three nights.

Chicago, as the midwest cultural epicenter, receives most leisure visitors from Michigan, Illinois, Ohio, Indiana and Wisconsin. More than 70 percent of leisure visitors drive to the city. Of the 23 percent of leisure visitors who arrive by air, the majority come from feeeder cities: Detroit, Indianapolis, Grand Rapids/Kalamazoo, St. Louis, and Los Angeles.

A survey of what these leisure visitors do while in Chicago showed that 38 percent participate in cultural activities, such as attending museums, theaters or concerts. The also enjoy entertainment and shopping activities, which received 34 percent and 36 percent participation, respectively.

CULTURAL CHICAGO

"Chicago's opportunity for [tourism] growth is centered in the wonderful products that it has in its cultural community, whether its theater, dance, music, including blues and gospel, architecture, and cultural icons, such as the Chicago Theater and the [Chicago] Art Institute," Shaw explains. "After deciding that cultural tourism would be the city's brand for leisure marketing efforts, we sought private sector partners that would enhance the brand, and bring their constituencies to the table," Shaw says.

Major corporations, based in Chicago, helped to sponsor the first year of the Cultural Chicago campaign in 1997. Among the partners were: United Airlines, Budget Rent-A-Car, Sears, the Sara Lee Corporation, Hyatt Hotels, and WTTW-TV, Chicago's PBS affiliate. Other partners were travel and hospitality companies that have a major presence in Chicago; they include Hilton Hotels and American Express.

The campaign concentrated on print and television as distribution channels. TV spots, featuring gospel music, that were already running in midwest markets were folded into the campaign. The state bureau of tourism and the cultural affairs department sponsored a WTTW-TV produced series, called ArtBeat Chicago. Each half-hour episode showcased a Chicago cultural attraction or event, which were carried on other PBS affiliates in major midwest markets.

MARKETING PARTNERS

A glossy travel planner, "Cultural Chicago," was created to highlight the city's neighborhoods, festivals, and cultural attractions, underwritten largely by American Express, with title sponsorships by United Airlines and Budget Rent A Car. It was inserted into American Express publications' Travel & Leisure and Food & Wine, as well as The New York Times Magazine, and distributed at Chicago's visitor centers and to callers to the state tourism 800-number. American Express also mailed Cultural Chicago to 25,000 of its domestic cardholders.

The conversion rate to American Express' direct mail campaign was 66 percent, the highest it had ever had. "The second highest had been for a European travel planner direct mail campaign, which had had a 29 percent response rate," Shaw notes. American Express tracked 1997 expenditures in Chicago by targeted cardholders, who left $345 million in American Express receipts.

The profile for an American Express cardholder mirrors the high-value customer that Chicago seeks. Because these people access information from the Internet, Chicago develop a Web site for Cultural Chicago, and advertises it on high traffic Web sites they visit.

"American Express said we carved a niche for them," Shaw says. "We created a program that was quite unusual at the time, but because it has been so successful, other cities in other states are mirroring the program."

INTERNATIONAL VISITORS

Because of the resounding success of the campaign's first year and to prepare for the international travel trade show, Pow Wow, the city was hosting in 1998, the Cultural Chicago campaign was expanded to include an international component in its second year, 1998.

"International is our most important tourism growth sector," says Shaw. Chicago received 1.1 million international visitors in 1997, up 40.5 percent in 1997 from 1991.

This time the planner, which was updated as "Front Row Chicago," again underwritten by American Express, was developed in three versions for separate audiences: domestic and international consumers and international travel trade. Chicago's sales representatives in Germany and the United Kingdom, which are Chicago's largest international markets, were provided educational programs, including literature and video, to support tour operators' ability to sell Destination Chicago to consumers.

To provide awareness about Chicago to international tour operators before Pow Wow, "Front Row" inserts were dropped into key trade publications they receive After Pow Wow, inserts continued for two months as follow-up.

The 1998 planners advertised coupon books, which provided discounts at a hundred retail, arts and entertainment attractions, and restaurants. Books were distributed free at visitor centers, which helped drive traffic to centers, which provide other services. Some tour operators put vouchers for the coupon book in their packages, which instructed travelers to take them to the visitors centers.

"Attractions that are featured in the book didn't have to pay to participate; they just had to offer a discount. So it's a good marketing vehicle for them as well," says Coyle.

POW WOW

After a rainy day beginning, the city sparkled during the rest of Pow Wow's trade show, held at McCormick Place in May 1998. The city's scenic and architectural beauty; cultural variety, from theater to blues clubs to major museums to ethnic cuisine, were showcased to an international audience of 1,200 tour operators and several hundred media, many of whom were seeing Chicago for the first time.

Some of these operators had had the misperception that Chicago would be an industrial city. "They expected to see smokestacks," Shaw says. Visitors were also impressed by the 977 Chicagoans who volunteered more than 7,000 hours to create a welcoming ambiance and seamless logistics of movement and organization.

While it is too soon to know Pow Wow's impact in attracting international groups to Chicago, feedback from the press and tour operators has been positive. "We're still getting clips from journalists who not only came during Pow Wow, but left, and returned to write about sports, architecture [and other aspects of Chicago]," Shaw notes. "Tour operators are beginning to use Chicago as a vacation destination for city breaks in their packages, and hoteliers are reporting an increase in international visitors."

Besides meeting its objectives to attract new visitors and achieve economic impact goals, the Cultural Chicago campaign had a galvanizing impact on the city's cultural community.

"Part of our program was an educational program within our own cultural community," Shaw says. This was the first time that many cultural organizations, such as theaters, partnered with hoteliers and other organizations to create tour packages.

When you study where they [new 1997 leisure visitors] are coming from and what they are doing, they are primarily cultural tourists," Coyle says.

Cultural Chicago also fits nicely into the city's objective to make Chicago a year-round destination. For the past three years, it has been hosting a Halloween festival, called Chicaglo, that has been extended through the fourth quarter. Another festival, Winterbreak, packages weekend getaways to Chicago, during February. Meanwhile, a revitalization has been ongoing in the downtown Loop area, with new hotels, restaurants, and restored theaters. A recent initiative, called Downtown Thursday Night, of programs and activities after hours, is helping to bring back nightlife to the area.

As Chicago2001 unfolds, Chicago's top tourism and cultural minds are plotting the next strategic phase for Cultural Chicago, to be announced later this summer, which no doubt will capitalize on the city's millennium programs.