Evanston has teamed up with nine surrounding communities in a preliminary effort to increase tourism in the North Shore.
In its first step toward marketing the area as a tourist destination, the Evanston Convention and Visitors Bureau has hired a consulting firm to conduct a feasibility study of the region's benefits. After the firm, Tourism Development Associates of Maine, finishes evaluating the North Shore, the 10 communities will combine for a joint marketing effort, said Tensley Garris, executive director of the bureau.
"Evanston has a lot of wonderful things to offer, but we don't have it all," Garris said. "We can diversify the types of audiences we can appeal to if we work with our neighbors."
Garris said she hopes the 3-year-old visitors bureau will become a regional center for North Shore tourism — its original intent. The bureau has forged informal partnerships with surrounding suburbs over the past few years and recognizes the future benefits of promoting the larger North Shore community, she said.
Garris met Sept. 28 with the consulting firm and north suburban officials, including those from Skokie, Wilmette, Winnetka and Lincolnwood, as well as Rep. Jeff Schoenberg (D-Evanston), who helped obtain a $125,000 grant from the state Department of Commerce and Community Affairs for the study. The grant supplements the visitors bureau's $250,000 tourism budget for this year, which includes a $37,000 contribution from Northwestern.
The feasibility study will be completed by the end of the year, Garris said. If the study proves that a regional effort will bring more visitors to the North Shore, the next step will be to develop a marketing strategy to incorporate the 10 communities.
Garris said work on the program probably will start next summer, in conjunction with the beginning of the state's fiscal year.
The North Shore already draws visitors to several attractions, including the Chicago Botanical Gardens in Glencoe, Wilmette's Báháí'í Temple and NU's Big Ten teams, Garris said. And businesses in the region could see a revenue increase with the marketing effort.
"We're confident it would have a positive impact on business," said Maria Berg-Stark, marketing manager for Old Orchard Shopping Center in Skokie and a part of the Skokie Task Force, which is researching the marketing effort.
But other communities are not sure of the marketing plan's effect on business.
"It's really hard to say," said Julie Yusim, executive director of the Wilmette Chamber of Commerce. "I don't think we've been presented with enough information yet."
Schoenberg said the next challenge will be to secure funding.
"I'm optimistic that the communities in the North Shore will find it beneficial to promote the area on a regional basis," he said.
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