Porter Airlines' John Kirk & Jen Hoelzle, Director for the Illinois Office of Tourism
David Han from Choose Chicago &
Rajiv Calpakam from Vision 2000 enjoy breakfast together
Tricia Fietz, from the US Consulate General (USCG) chats with Waheeda Harris, Freelancer, & Jane Humphreys from USCG's Toronto office
Jeffrey Johnson & Jen Hoelzel mingle with guests at Malaparte
Illinois Office of Tourism recently held a fancy breakfast shindig for their tourism partners at the Malaparte Restaurant in the TIFF Bell Lightbox. On hand for the event were Jeffrey Johnson from the State of Illinois’ Canada Office; Jen Hoelzle, the new Director for the Illinois Office of Tourism and John Kirk, Director, Vacations & Packaged Products for Porter.
Guests included representatives from the U.S. Consulate General, travel agents, freelancers and business people. Nobody was disappointed with the spread - in addition to a wide selection of colourful juices, there was loads of help-yourself fresh coffee and some special-looking teas – pretty much an essential part of any successful breakfast event. In another civilized move, guests also enjoyed breakfast appetizers with their beverages–French toast dippers were a hit, so were the adorable fruit cups, and there were even individual servings of breakfast hash.
It’s not surprising that the event attracted such a variety of guests – Illinois is a popular destination with Canadians – in fact, we’re the #1 source of international visitors to the state. In 2011 alone, we made 503,000 visits to Illinois, and we’re on track to exceed that number this year.
While the crowd enjoyed their 3 course breakfast, Jen Hoelzle entertained with a variety of stories about the state and its 102 counties.. She explained that a very successful web campaign recently showed Illinois is “top of mind for dreamers”, who are encouraged to start their dreaming at the aptly named website www.enjoyillinois.com.
There are, it seems, plenty of reasons to dream about and visit Illinois - and many of them have to do with food! There’s a heart-stopping creation from Springfield called the “horseshoe sandwich” involving white bread, fried chicken, French fries and a special cheese sauce. Thankfully, visitors can enjoy slightly healthier-sounding fare in the town of Galena - like the truly local food at One Eleven Main Restaurant. Here, Jack, the owner, might even sit at the end of the table and tell a few local ghost stories while you eat.
Skewing to the unhealthy again for a moment, the city of Alton has an amazingly indulgent-sounding pie shop: My Just Desserts – definitely the stuff dreams are made of. In fact, Jen Hoelzle became almost breathless for a moment as she explained that “my favourite is the Peanut Butter Luster”- although it should be noted that she didn’t claim to have tried all 150 of the shop’s recipes.
The state of Illinois has loads of local experiences to try out – food-related or otherwise. As Porter’s John Kirk explained, the destination is not just for business travellers, there are some great – commissionable - city getaways on Porter Escapes; perfect for leisure clients interested in dreaming a little.
