Experience Champaign Urbana reports record hotel-tax receipts; council directs staff to continue support

Jane De Luce, president and CEO of Experience Champaign Urbana, told the Champaign City Council at a Jan. 28 study session that tourism generated record local hotel-motel tax receipts in fiscal year 2024 and remains a major engine for the local economy.

De Luce said the organization recorded $4,400,000 in hotel-motel tax collections for the city of Champaign and $5,800,000 for Champaign County in fiscal year 2024. She told councilors tourism supports “more than 5,000 jobs” and said visitor spending drives payroll and tax receipts that are invested locally.

The presentation summarized Experience Champaign Urbana’s (ECU) marketing and sales work across Champaign County and four adjacent counties (Moultrie, Douglas, Piatt and Ford). De Luce described recent brand and digital changes that she said boosted engagement: click-through rates rose “over 100%” since the agency rebranded in May 2023, website traffic increased by about 28%, radio advertising reach grew and ECU’s restaurant-week web pages saw double-digit gains. “Tourism is a key driver of our region’s economy, generating $170,000,000 in annual spending and supporting more than 5,000 jobs,” she said.

De Luce highlighted specific programs and events ECU promotes: the IHSA boys state basketball tournaments and related adaptive sports events, the local marathon (which she said returned in 2024 and is expected to attract more than 12,000 participants), the CU Mocktail Trail (194 sign-ups at the time of the presentation), a CU Asian Trail (604 sign-ups) and a CU Arts Trail featuring more than 200 public-art pieces. She also noted ECU’s Experience Pass program, a talent-attraction effort and the organization’s film office activities to attract shooting production and related vendor work.

Council members thanked ECU for the work and asked clarifying questions. Councilmember Williams asked about local artists’ participation in a recent mural selection process; De Luce said a subset of murals were created by artists of color selected through a competitive process and that the organization used the selection events as professional-development opportunities for local and emerging artists. Multiple council members praised ECU’s outreach to businesses and called the agency’s SEO and digital reach a community asset.

Mayor and council discussion moved to formal direction: the mayor stated the council’s alternative on the agenda was to “continue to promote tourism by directing staff to work with Experience Champaign Urbana to support the implementation of their current and long-range strategic plans.” Councilmembers indicated assent during the session and the city manager noted staff would take next steps with ECU.

ECU’s presentation materials and the agency’s foundation work were described as continuing efforts rather than requests for changes to the city’s funding agreement; De Luce said there were no contract amendments or special funding requests at this session. Council members and staff discussed member-government contributions and the role of hotel-motel tax in supporting tourism grants at the state level.

De Luce thanked the council and the community and said ECU would share its presentation slides with staff and council.

Ending

Council direction at the meeting was to continue staff collaboration with Experience Champaign Urbana to implement its strategic plans; no ordinance or budget amendment was adopted during the session on this item.