50+ Lifestyles

Quad Cities Convention & Visitors Bureau celebrates 25 marvelous years in 2015

This year marks the 25th anniversary of a regional effort to market the Quad Cities as a single destination when the Quad  Cities Convention & Visitors Bureau was officially formed in 1990.

The bureau resulted from the merger of the former  Davenport Area Convention & Visitors Bureau, the Bettendorf Convention & Visitors Bureau and the Illinois Quad Cities  Travel and Visitors Bureau.

Joe Taylor

“Both visitors and local residents alike realized the need for the Quad Cities to market itself as a single destination,” said Joe Taylor who has been with the bureau all of those 25 years, earlier as Director of Marketing and Communications and later as President/CEO. “The Quad Cities has had and continues to face increasing competition for visitors from other destinations;  thus, marketing the entire Quad Cities provided the entire spectrum of things to see and do here. Otherwise, visitors would
potentially have had to lcontact three offices to get information on our single destination so it made sense to unify.”

Local funders, as well as tourism offices in Illinois and Iowa, approved the merger which created one of the nation’s few convention and visitors bureaus which cross state lines. “There are many tourism bureaus which cover multiple communities but only two to three that cover parts of two states,” Taylor said.

Taylor came to the former Davenport Area Convention and Visitors Bureau in 1989 as the three tourism bureaus were in the process of merging into the single new entity.

Vince Lindstrom was the first executive director, coming to the Quad Cities from the Fargo, North Dakota-Morehead, Minnesota convention and visitors bureau. Lindstrom left in 1994 and was replaced by Bruce McDaniel who served until his unexpected death in early 1998. Taylor was then named president/CEO.

The highlight of the celebration will be the bureau’s 25th anniversary to be held Wednesday, September 16, 2015 in the Gold Room of the Hotel Blackhawk. Other plans include a reunion of former employees and the public selection of the top tourism events in the last quarter century.

If your organization or service club needs a speaker or program, contact Joe Taylor at (309) 736-6820 to arrange a staff member of the Quad Cities Convention and Visitors Bureau to present on tourism in the Quad Cities.

Quad Cities CVB highlights 1990-2015
2015
• Quad Cities CVB celebrates its 25th anniversary.
2014
• USA Today readers vote Davenport third best American riverfront
• Missouri Valley Conference announces Women’s Basketball Championship to be held in Quad Cities 2016, 2017, 2018
2013
• USA Today readers vote Modern Woodmen Park as Best Minor League Ballpark in the nation
• Hosted inaugural Quad Cities Restaurant Week
• Hosted Great Race as part of 75th anniversary of Great River Road
• Hosted 3rd International Softball Congress
• Created new brand for Quad Cities tourism
2012
• Received re-accreditation from DMAI until 2016
• Hosted fifth ASA national championship. Previous championships held
• Facilitated inaugural East West Riverfest
• Hosted Midwest Travel Writers Association
• Hosted seventh FLW national fishing championship – FLW National Guard Walleye Championship
2011
• Hosted RAGBRAI for the first time in 29 years, Train Festival and International Softball Congress for second time (2009)
• Better Business Bureau Integrity Award
• Celebrated 20th anniversary of gaming in the Quad Cities
2010
• Outstanding CVB Award, Upper Midwest CVB Conference
2009
• Hosted ISC for first time since 1973, 36 years.
• Established Experience Quad Cities, an arts, culture and heritage collaboration
2008
• Accreditation by Destination Marketing Association International (DMAI)
• Quad Cities wayfinding system implemented
2007
• Facilitated destination assessment by tourism expert Bill Geist
• Black Hawk State Historic Site named one of the “Seven Wonders of Illinois”
• Hosted second Midwest Birding Symposium
2006
• Steam Train Excursions. QCCVB developed and managed on-line ticket sales and reservation system.
• Hosted National Trails Symposium
2005
• Hosted first Midwest Birding Symposium
2004
• Hosted Grand Excursion, recreation of 1854 expedition by train from east coast to Rock island and steamship upriver to the Twin Cities
2003
• Rock Island Preservation Society Award for production of first Quad
Cities Historic Guide
2002
• Created Be A Tourist in Your Own Backyard Weekend
2001
• Partnered with Quad City International Airport to create visitor information center.
• Iowa Tourism Leadership Award
1998
• Hosted Women’s International Bowling Congress
• Quad Cities Sports Commission produced inaugural Quad Cities Marathon
• Fred Burns Memorial Award for Outstanding Service to Travel Writers, MTWA
1997
1996
• Big River Rendezvous (Cruise by Delta Queen and other boats to celebrate Iowa’s sesquicentennial)
1995
• Centennial of the Founding of Chiropractic included float in Rose Bowl parade
1994
• Expansion of RiverCenter
1993
• I Wireless Center opens (then known as The Mark of the Quad Cities)
1992
• QCCVB organizers joint float of three riverboat casinos for first anniversary of riverboat gaming
1991
• Commencement of riverboat gaming
1990
• Quad Cities CVB formed