Selling the Peoria Area

The Peoria area boasts a diversity of businesses, meeting space and entertainment, so Enjoy Peoria has plenty to promote for local tourism and convention sales. Our goal is to attract visitors to the area, inform locals and tourists of all the events happening here, and shine a spotlight on our partners and communities throughout the state and beyond.

We are so fortunate to have an abundance of amenities to sell to potential clients and visitors. Whether it be the 900,000 square feet of versatile space at the Peoria Civic Center, or more than 4,000 hotel rooms around the Greater Peoria region, we have the big-city amenities that meeting planners are looking for—but at much more affordable rates. For event attendees and leisure tourists, unique dining options and exciting attractions await, with impressive growth on the horizon as well.

Our Peoria Park District is world-class, offering several attractions unique to the area, such as the Peoria Zoo, Luthy Botanical Garden and Peoria PlayHouse Children’s Museum. Along the riverfront, the Caterpillar Visitors Center and Peoria Riverfront Museum welcome thousands of visitors each year, providing educational and entertainment options not found elsewhere. New attractions are popping up everywhere—from trampoline parks to axe throwing to rock climbing—and we cannot wait to see what the tourism industry looks like in the years to come.

Enjoy Peoria: Our Mission
At this point you may be asking, “How does Enjoy Peoria sell our area, and how does this impact me?” First, part of our mission is to bring new convention and sporting events to the area, which attract a significant number of visitors who spend their dollars here in our community. Our sales team attends trade shows across the country to meet and entice new clients to the Peoria area. (Think speed dating, but for business conventions.) They are constantly communicating with and touring prospective groups to show that the Peoria area will not only meet their group’s needs, but exceed them.

How does this impact you? In 2018 alone, Enjoy Peoria hosted conventions and sporting events that generated $29 million in estimated economic impact for our communities. Our sales team worked to attract and assist with hosting fun, exciting events such as the American Junior Golf Association’s D.A. Points Junior Championship, the U.S. Figure Skating Upper Great Lakes Regional Championships, the Professional Disc Golf Association World Championships and the Collie Club of America National Specialty Show, just to name a few.

These events are not only interesting and entertaining; their attendees provide a huge boost to our local economy. So all of the badges and uniforms you see, perhaps the less-than-familiar faces… please welcome them, say hello and be hospitable. They are keeping the communities we call home thriving!

A dynamic regional marketing strategy is another component of our mission at Enjoy Peoria, and our efforts are focused on several angles. First, we promote the Peoria area to potential visitors outside of the region. As a resident of the Peoria area, you may not see these tactics. Highway billboard signs, magazine articles and advertisements, radio spots and television commercials are consistently running throughout the Midwest. Our central location in the state is a major advantage to selling our area as a weekend destination, and we often encourage a budget-friendly weekend escape from the big city, or push the next big event on the Riverfront or at the Peoria Civic Center in our messaging.

Hometown Cheerleaders
It’s also important that we encourage our locals to explore their own backyard and become cheerleaders for the Peoria area. We work to achieve this through a variety of platforms. That includes featuring our partnering attractions, restaurants and upcoming events in local TV interviews, radio announcements, social and digital media, and yearly editions of our coupon book and the Enjoy Peoria Experience Guide (a one-stop shop for anything and everything in the area).

It’s easy to take for granted the amazing recreational opportunities available to you. But we encourage you to get out there: try out that new restaurant, visit the latest exhibit at our amazing museums, and buy tickets to a show or concert. If you have friends or family visiting, show them why the Peoria area is a great place to live. Positivity spreads like wildfire!

Our job at Enjoy Peoria is to bring local hotels, attractions and restaurants together to showcase the Peoria area as a premier meeting and leisure destination. If you are a business owner and would like to get involved, please do not hesitate to contact our office. Promoting new and existing businesses to help all of our communities flourish is our purpose. PM

Visit enjoypeoria.com or call (309) 676-0303 for more information.