40th Annual National Travel & Tourism Week kicks off

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) — The National Travel and Tourism Week is celebrating its 40th anniversary this week.

"Visit Springfield" kicked off their event schedule on Sunday by opening the Giant Slide at the Illinois State Fairgrounds for the first time in more than 50 years.

"It's the week that the nation comes together and recognizes the importance of tourism and the economic impact that it has on our nation," said Amy Beadle, Marketing Director for Visit Springfield. "There are so many free things here. Almost every attraction we have is free to enter, so it's very family friendly — it's very affordable. We're a drivable market which people are liking, so, we find ourselves to be affordable, family friendly, and just in the middle of everything."

Visit Springfield is partnering with the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum, City of Springfield Municipal Center West and Thomas Rees Memorial Carillon & Springfield Park District to light up the city in red as part of the NTTW national effort to show support of the importance of tourism.

Travel and tourism has a $483 million economic impact in Sangamon County alone, supporting over 3,500 jobs in the county.

"As we know, all the projects that we see going around on our city right now — the street improvements, the infrastructure improvements — anything like that that even makes the life of residents better is through people coming in and spending money in our community." Beadle continued, "Then, those tax dollars that are associated with that allow us to have a better place to live, work, and call home."

The week will conclude with a networking and speaker event on Friday, featuring Stephanie Stuckey, CEO of Stuckey Family Brands.