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The conference took place at the Aon Ballroom
at Navy Pier in Chicago on Monday.
In August, Pritzker approved a $10 million grant program to
support new and existing tourism attractions and festivals
across the state. The budget aims at revitalizing the hardly hit
tourism industry.
Pritzker stressed during his speech at the convention the
importance of tourism for the state.
"Even in 2020, as hard as it was, tourism in Illinois supported
$47 billion in direct and indirect business sales," Pritzker
said. "I am committed to making the investments necessary to
renew our tourism industry and the communities that it
supports."
Pritzker also touted state support for local
businesses to help improve tourism for Illinois.
"We've deployed over a billion dollars of relief to over 100,00
Illinois businesses in hundreds of cities and counties and
towns," Pritzker said. "We have provided 7,500 hospitality
grants totaling $265 million through DCEOs business interruption
grants and back-to-business grants."
Pritzker ended his speech at the convention with a call to
action regarding tourism in the state.
"I intend to market and promote and advertise our tourism
industry and never stop doing so," Pritzker said. "You are the
lifeblood of our future and the return on investment in this
industry delivers for the people of Illinois."
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