Nauvoo tourism jumps 25%
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NAUVOO, Ill. — The number of people touring the city this summer was up about 25 percent over the previous year, city and Nauvoo Restoration Inc. officials said.
Nauvoo Restoration Inc. spokesman Loren Burton said preliminary figures show about a 25 percent increase during the traditional Memorial Day through Labor Day season, which last year saw about 200,000 visitors.
City officials confirmed the growth, citing about a 30 percent increase in June 1999 sales tax collections over June 1998 figures.
Treasurer Francis Koenig said the numbers show more people are staying in town when they do come to visit.
Hotel/motel tax collections were up by 43 percent over the previous summer, adjusting for a 56-room addition at the 120-room Nauvoo Family Motel.
In raw numbers, Koenig said hotel/motel tax revenues are up by around 70 percent.
Burton attributed much of that to publicity — both paid advertising and the free publicity that accompanied the Easter Sunday announcement that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will reconstruct the historic Nauvoo Temple.
The announcement prompted travel writers from the Chicago Tribune, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the New York Times and other large regional and national publications to come to the city and write about its attractions, he said.
It also prompted the Public Broadcasting Service to film "The American Prophet," a program about church founder Joseph Smith Jr. and early Nauvoo.
About 80 percent of the tourists are members of the church, Burton estimated.
A number of historic sites restored by the Mormons and the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints have religious significance to the faithful of both bodies.
But Burton said the proportion of non-Mormon visitors changes during the fall, winter and spring.
"They'll come in the off-season when they know it's not going to be busy," he said.
Erik Hansen, director of the RLDS Church's Joseph Smith Historic Center, said visitors range from youth group members to elderly tour bus patrons.
Mayor Tom Wilson said the city is the second best known tourist destination in Illinois after Abraham Lincoln's hometown of Springfield.
The city has benefited in recent years from a trend toward short trips and away from extended vacations. Burton said that's a trend that's likely to continue. "It fits families and it fits budgets," he said.
