In an effort to drive more travel and tourism to its 22-county coverage area in southern Illinois, ILLINOISouth Tourism has released a new-look 2021 Visitors Guide.
The publication features ideas from foodie fun to outdoor adventure and more. The Illinois Office of Tourism is focused on promoting road trip itineraries this year, so readers will find four-day trip ideas in ILLINOISouth’s new guide as well. 
“A lot of people are looking to travel now that restrictions are loosening and more folks are vaccinated,” said Andy Waterman, communications director for ILLINOISouth. “Bringing in visitors for a weekend or even for day trips will really start to help the recovery process for many of these communities and businesses.”
Tourism was one of the state’s leading industries before the pandemic, accounting for more than $41 billion in visitor spending. Waterman said ILLINOISouth is focused on attracting visitors from a five-hour radius to experience unique road trip adventures.
“In ILLINOISouth, you can start the day petting a kangaroo, then spend some time at a beach watching sailboats, and finish it by climbing up the World’s Largest Mailbox,” he explained. “We love to promote the fun, quirky road trips that truthfully are not a far drive for many of these visitors.”
A new aspect to ILLINOISouth’s 2021 Visitors Guide is the ability to be interactive with the digital version online. Many of the listings in the digital version are linked, so readers can click on anything they are interested in and it will take them to that specific listing’s website or social media pages to learn more.
“While touching and feeling a hard copy is great, we realize that more and more people are viewing our materials online,” Waterman said. “We wanted to give those folks an added feature to make their reading experience as in-depth as they want it to be.”
Hard copies of the ILLINOISouth 2021 Visitors Guide have been distributed to many different locations throughout Illinois and Missouri, including tourist information centers along several different interstates. The Visitors Guide is free to the public, so those interested in the publication can also visit illinoisouth.org to request a copy here.
ILLINOISouth Tourism covers Bond, Clark, Clay, Clinton, Crawford, Cumberland, Edwards, Fayette, Hamilton, Jasper, Lawrence, Madison, Marion, Monroe, Perry, Randolph, Richland, St. Clair, Wabash, Wayne and White counties.