Southern Illinoisan: Governor to promote local wineries

http://www.southernillinoisan.com/articles/2005/02/02/top/doc4200d3af84be1469423103.txt

SOUTHERN ILLINOIS -- Gov. Rod Blagojevich will announce a campaign to promote tourism with Illinois wineries specifically in Southern Illinois during his State of the State address at noon Thursday.

Jan Kostner, Illinois state travel director for the Illinois Tourism Bureau, said $142,000 has been earmarked to create a buzz about Illinois wineries.

Kostner said the campaign is set to start next week. She said the goal is to draw more tourists to the area and encourage people to visit vineyards. She said wineries are a wonderful tourism attraction and the effort builds on the tourism bureau's marketing of "Illinois, land of the magnificent three-day getaway."

"We want people to come travel throughout the state to the wineries, stay at bed and breakfasts, do the Shawnee wine trail, do some antique-ing and spend money," Kostner said. "People always have had a natural interest in wines and we want to bring that up to the next level to really highlight that as one of our great tourist attractions."


I swear I wrote my post about traveling Illinois before I saw this article and I don't receive any payments from the Illinois Board of Tourism.

And I do not make money off any winery... I LEAVE money at wineries, but have never made any in one. :)


Laura