A weekend in Galesburg
By Dan Yasenko
Like most of you, IÕve searched for ideas to attract
or create jobs for Galesburg. After a lot of thought, IÕve reached a few
conclusions. Even though I remain hopeful, I donÕt believe that
Galesburg will be ŌsavedĶ by the entrance of a Maytag-sized employer to our
community. Instead, I suspect that
GalesburgÕs rebound will occur as the result of the growth of our current
employers and from our ability to attract small-to-medium sized business to our
community.
Fortunately, our city leaders have gone to great
lengths to make Galesburg attractive to prospective employers. Because of their efforts, we are well
positioned to attract new employers of all size to Galesburg. I am writing to offer a specific proposal
to promote the growth of our existing lodging, dining and entertainment
establishments (and their ancillary businesses) through a coordinated tourism
effort. The principle elements of the concept are listed below
1
Develop a series of
Galesburg weekend packages that target the Chicago-land area by capitalizing on
our Amtrak connection. Amtrak departs
from Chicago on Friday evenings at 5:55 PM and arrives in Galesburg at 8:34 PM.
The train has two departure times Galesburg on Sundays: 11:29 AM or 12:10 PM,
with scheduled arrival in Chicago at 3:05 PM and 3:20 PM respectively. This timeframe provides an ideal
opportunity to construct a weekend of activities for Chicago residents to host A
Weekend in Galesburg.
2
Focus on providing
worry and thought-free weekend of entertainment, dining and lodging in the City
of Galesburg. While the Chicago-land area offers unparalleled
opportunities for fine dining and entertainment, accessing these activities can
be challenging, stressful and very costly. A Weekend in Galesburg would begin with a worry-free train ride to our community. Our guests would be provided
complimentary transportation from the train station to their lodging at no
charge. Transportation would be
provided for their departure as well.
In addition, transportation during their stay in Galesburg would be made
as convenient as possible
Reservations for their primary dining and entertainment activities would
be pre-planned to make the weekend as effortless as possible. Obviously, additional activities would
be available and made as convenient as possible for the guests to pursue. The primary goal of A Weekend in
Galesburg would be to provide an
effortless, well-planned, worry and thought-free weekend of entertainment,
dining and lodging at a small-town pace and with commensurate small-town
savings.
3
Assemble A Weekend
in Galesburg packages around a
theme that is consistent with the featured musical entertainment for the
weekend. Galesburg has an exceptional range of musical talent
at its disposal. I
believe that the music scene in the Galesburg area is good enough to attract
visitors to Galesburg and is good enough to make them want to return. I
believe that if our collective, musical talents were packaged and marketed
effectively as the cornerstone of a weekend travel package, Galesburg would
gain a new and significant source of tourism.
4
Musical entertainment
Dining
Lodging
Symphony
Chez WillyÕs
Prairie Inn or B & B
Eclectic/Bohemian
Landmark
Prairie Inn or B&B
Country
Ribs
or buffet Comfort Inn (Mall proximity)
Blues
Mexican, Ribs or
Pizza Choice
Rock
Mexican, Ribs or Pizza Choice
5
Provide a wide
variety of additional activities consistent with the musical theme to acquaint
our guests to Galesburg and to generate additional revenue for our community. Packages
built around the Amtrak schedule would result in our guests spending two
evenings and two mornings in Galesburg.
A primary schedule with dining and entertainment would provide the
principle activities of the weekend.
A choice of additional activities, including a personal massage, a tour
of historic homes and landmarks, a visit to a coffee house, and informal
bluegrass jam session, attendance at a one-act play, antique shopping and
traditional retail shopping would all be made as accessible and convenient for
our guests as possible. Our guests
would have the ability to do as much or as little beyond the principle plans
based on their personal tastes and interests.
6
Market the package to
the smaller, wealthier northern Chicago suburbs and to venues frequented by
Chicago-land musicians and fans of live music. Chicago establishments associated with live music and
music workshops, such as The Old Town School of Folk Music and other live
venues that attract both musicians and fans of live music would be an excellent
starting point for a target audience.
The program could also be marketed in Galena and to those communities
that are served by Amtrak. The
target group would likely be baby boomers with disposable income who seek out
live entertainment.
7
Market the package
through a dedicated section of the Galesburg Tourism website. Virtual tours of Galesburg lodging and dining
establishments, along with on-line menus, drink costs, and cab rates would be important
to provide. In addition, musical
samples of the featured entertainers, along with video streams, where
available, would be featured on the website to establish the quality of the
entertainment. A Weekend in
Galesburg would allow our guests to
Ōlive largeĶ for a fraction of the cost of a weekend in the Chicago-land area.
8
Survey our guests
over a free, continental breakfast prior to their Sunday morning departure to
more accurately construct weekend packages for future guests. The
development of additional, cohesive weekend packages would necessitate the
collection and evaluation of data on our guests.
I consider the local music
scene in Galesburg to be a well-kept secret that needs to be shared outside of
our community. I also believe that
we have a tremendous amount of entrepreneurial ability which, if harnessed
collectively, could very well succeed at such an undertaking. I fully recognize
that this proposal represents quite a reach, but I felt the need to share my
thoughts just the same.