SHABBONA, Ill. - The benefits of small-town living seem apparent for those who live in a small town. However, it can be challenging for rural communities to market those benefits to a larger audience and increase tourism traffic. To address these challenges, University of Illinois Extension has partnered with Resource Bank to offer a workshop highlighting tools and ideas available for regional organizations, business owners, government officials, and local citizens to help their rural communities boost their tourism.
The workshop will be held on Thursday, Oct. 24 at 6 pm, at Quilhot Schoolhouse Community Room in Resource Bank,102 S. Indian Road, Shabbona, IL. The presenting partners will offer a networking session immediately following the workshop. The event is free of charge and open to all interested parties who register in advance by visiting go.illinois.edu/MarketingTourismShabbona or by calling Ogle County Extension at 815-732-2191 between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday.
Pam Schallhorn, a Specialist with Illinois Extension who works in community and economic development, will lead the workshop. She will address ways to create effective tourism marketing campaigns that reach different generations and provide insights into identifying target markets and the importance of digital marketing.
Rural tourism activities have been shown to foster local entrepreneurship, reverse the out-migration of young adults, provide local workforce opportunities, and expand economic opportunities in rural communities. Furthermore, a recent study (White, 2023) indicates that “recreation-dependent counties grew more than twice as fast as the nation overall, and the Midwest’s recreation counties mirrored this trend.”
Among the materials Schallhorn will cover will be a recent study by University of Illinois and Illinois Extension: I-Rural: Reimagining Illinois Rural Tourism. The workshop will review a rural tourism toolkit that allows communities and organizations to better understand and promote their communities and an updated grant resource guide.
For questions about the program or if reasonable accommodations are needed to attend the program, please contact Pam Schallhorn at pscha2@illinois.edu. Early requests for accommodations are strongly encouraged to allow sufficient time to meet the requestor’s needs.
University of Illinois Extension develops educational programs, extends knowledge, and builds partnerships to support people, communities, and their environments as part of the state's land-grant institution. Extension serves as the leading public outreach effort for University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences in all 102 Illinois counties through a network of 27 multi-county units and over 700 staff statewide. Extension’s mission is responsive to eight strategic priorities — community, economy, environment, food and agriculture, health, partnerships, technology and discovery, and workforce excellence — that are served through six program areas — 4-H youth development, agriculture and agribusiness, community and economic development, family and consumer science, integrated health disparities, and natural resources, environment, and energy.