- [Laura] Wheelan-Presley Funeral Home and Crematory, a proud supporter of WQPT, has been serving Quad City families since 1889.

They now have livestream capabilities for viewing your loved one's funeral or memorial service.

- [Announcer] At IHMVCU, we've always been here for you.

You are and always will be our top priority.

We care about your financial and physical health, and we are here.

IHMVCU is a proud supporter of WQPT.

- Are we back to welcoming visitors?

And the German celebration of all things Christmas in "The Cities."

(bright upbeat music) The German American Heritage Center in downtown Davenport wants you to not only experience German heritage at Christmas time, but to get a better feel for what it was like 150 years ago as German immigration transformed parts of the cities.

More on that in a moment.

But first, a welcoming group of cities.

Tourism around the world knocked down its knees as the COVID-19 pandemic started to spread 22 months ago.

It's just coming back, tourism that is, but so is a new variant that's threatening international travel.

But what about here at home?

During this holiday season, is this important industry starting to, dare I say, thrive once again?

We talked with Dave Herrell, President and CEO of Visit Quad Cities.

Dave, I mean, it's not a light switch.

You're not gonna turn it back on and instantly tourism reappears, but how has the process gone over the past year?

- Well first, great to be with you, Jim, and I appreciate the conversation.

It's definitely not gonna be a turn the light switch on, or move the faucet.

It's a slow burn.

Tourism economics and all of the experts that analyze the travel and tourism industry, it's gonna be a few years until we get back to 2019 numbers.

And those non-resident revenues are so critical to our economic development and the things that we're trying to do to move the Quad Cities regional destination forward.

But it's gonna be a slow burn.

It's gonna take a couple years, but we still need to continue to press on the gas, and have the sense of urgency to do the things that we're doing, so that we are not in a competitive disadvantage against the communities and the states that we're competing with everyday.

- Yeah, because let's be honest, you're in the same boat as everyone else.

So the question is can you make the Quad City recovery quicker or at least not slower than the competition?

- Yeah, it's all about how you're positioning your community and your destination.

And so for us we've got to remain stable not only as an organization, and we are, but just as a destination.

And so the more that we can do to market, promote, advertise, sell, and do that now, and do that with a sense of urgency, then that's going to hopefully put us in a much better position in 2023, 2024, 2025, and beyond.

And what everyone needs to realize, it's a hyper competitive space anyway, it always has been and always will be, but the pandemic has exasperated this very much, and every city around the United States and quite frankly the globe is kind of going through the same exercise that we are here in the QC.

And so we have got to do whatever we can to make sure that we're competitive and relevant doing the things that we need to do.

- We look at that 20% drop in 2020, 20% drop in tourism dollars spent in the Quad City area.

Huge number, huge impact also on local taxes as well.

But you were saying that you were surprised that it wasn't more.

- Yeah, when we went into this, we spent a lot of time in sort of research mode and working with both the state of Illinois, the state of Iowa, Tourism Economics, US Travel Associations, Travel Research, all of the business intelligence partners that we work with within the space.

And we were actually forecasting at a baseline at least a 30% debt year over year from '19 to '20.

So I'm always gonna look at silver linings.

I'm always gonna check out the positive nuggets instead of only, be that 21 and a half percent down year over year.

Obviously not happy about it, and certainly we need to do everything we can to kind of get back to where we were to level set the visitor economy, but to only be at 21 and a half versus what we were forecasting, I think is a silver lining for tourism.

And that's really our perspective on it right now.

- How much of that 20% do you think has been made back in 2021?

I mean, is it impossible to venture a guess right now?

- I think it's too soon.

And I think, what we've learned, and obviously as a business we've been adapting, and that agility I think has really helped our destination in terms of how we're competing against our comp sets.

But I think it's too early, and a lot of that is just because of the uncertainty of travel.

And I think for us, you can really look at the math around it, and put together some forecasts, and project back out, but I think what COVID and that disruption that it's had in the marketplace, it's much harder to predict on when we think we're gonna get back to any sort of let's call it normalcy from an economic standpoint.

And really, I think by 2024, that's when we're gonna get back to where, okay, now we're in this mode, unless there's any major disruptions that happen within that time parameter, but I think it's gonna be a couple of years until we can kind of get back to that 2019 number, which is record years for not only the Quad Cities, but just travel and tourism in general domestically.

- When I talked to you a year ago, you were really worried because of the large events centers not being able to hold these big events, and the trickle-down domino effect, let's say at the TaxSlayer Center and that impact to Downtown Moline, or things that would happen at the River Center at the Adler that would affect Downtown Davenport.

I can keep going, of course.

The Waterfront Convention Center in Bettendorf, and The Rust Belt as well in East Moline.

Now that they're having events, that's a big progress for the Quad City area for tourism.

- It is I think those destination assets and the venues and the facility partners that we have within our portfolio are critical to our economy because as they are programmed and activated, whether it's local events or events that we're working on a daily to recruit into the marketplace, it's got a huge ripple effect from an economic perspective because it's not just necessarily about those direct revenues that are flowing into those facilities, but it really impacts the entire system.

And so there is direct spending, there's obviously indirect, and induced, but, I mean, you're gonna see impacts, you're gonna have the usual suspects, hotels, restaurants, attractions, those kinds of things, but it's everything.

I mean, it could be airport revenues, gaming revenues, amusement taxes, F and B, like the list goes on, but then the supply chain too, and the people that are connected to the visitor economy, it could be florists that are providing a center pieces at the TaxSlayer Center.

It's a whole variety of things within the ecosystem, and that's why having these venues back, and having a firm strategy and plan to activate them to get our economy rolling again is important because they are economic development engines.

They bring a lot of prosperity into the community, but they're also good for our soul and our emotional wellbeing, because we wanna go do things and experience those things in our community.

And so with a watchful eye, we got to continue to make sure that those venues are activated.

And I think I've been pleased with 2021 in terms of just seeing that level of activation, which is hopefully gonna be something that you'll see into 2022 and beyond.

- Right now we're in the midst of the holiday season, do you feel that there is this comeback right now?

I mean, you're seeing some of the downtowns that are making this huge effort to get people to shop locally, and you're seeing events like Festival of Trees that are back.

Obviously, you're noticing a huge difference this holiday compared to last.

- Yeah, huge, I think anecdotally, if you're seeing human beings gather and visit Quad Cities, we like to say that we're in the gathering business.

And seeing our downtowns come alive and thrive, and whether it's through Festival of Trees, or things like the Holiday Hop, or Christkindl Market, or things happening in LeClaire, in Silvis, I mean, pick your community within our family of communities.

And so you're seeing that high level of activity, and you're seeing people on the streets, and they're doing things.

And so, that's been critical during the holiday season, and we're hoping that will continue to pace along as we kind of work towards recovery.

And that's really the goal.

- So tell me what the plan is for 2022?

- Well, I think a few things.

I think the thing that we've got to continually focus on tourism is economic development.

I'm very bullish on the Quad Cities future and how we're positioned as it relates to doing things within this space.

I think the forecast that we have for 2022 is great.

If you look at our shoulder season coming into calendar year 2022, we've got some events, larger ones in March that were canceled in 2020 that are gonna come back, and I think that's exciting.

An event like Gathering of the Green, a couple of thousand people, brings people from every state in the continental United States to be here.

So I think, we're very bullish on the future in 2022.

I think the other things that I think we're always gonna have to just be mindful of is that leisure travel sector, that's gaining continual steam.

Like that's not slowing down because of the high demand for people that are just wanting to go do things, and that road trip, that 200 mile radius point to the Quad Cities, it will be really critical in our marketing and promotional efforts.

Where we're concerned is in the meeting and event, convention conference space, group travel, and then transient business travel.

We need the business community to get out there and start traveling again.

We need that Monday through Thursday to be robust again because those business travelers are really critical to our economy.

That we need those non-resident revenues, they're directly impacting our quality of lives.

And so whatever we can do to get the business community in the Quad Cities activated and know that, hey, bring your customers in, bring your suppliers, have those meetings here.

And we know there's efficiencies, and certainly we've learned that through COVID, but there's nothing better than that human interaction, and that face-to-face relationship, and that connectivity, and so we need that.

And not only do we need that just for the human side of things that we do, but we need it for our economy.

- When you're talking about the economy, you also have a new COVID variant, we've got, as you mentioned, supply chain problems, how do you think that's gonna impact the local tourism area especially in this new year?

- Well, it already is.

I think it has so many impacts, and they're adverse.

You gotta make sure that you're mindful of what's happening within the supply chain role because it does create challenges.

There's 8,000 people that work within the tourism space, the hospitality space in the Quad Cities, and that industry has suffered the greatest.

And the things that are connected to that industry from a supply perspective are vitally important.

And so, we've got to continue to watch that because it does impact the greater visitor economy.

And so the visitor economy is not just necessarily an overnight stay and a guest in a hotel room, it's a variety of things on so many different levels.

And so, it gives us concern, and I think we need to continue to watch it.

And things like inflation, and those macroeconomic issues that we face every day as an economy, we got to make sure that we're watching it because it does impact travel.

It impacts tourism, and sometimes people are a little tighter in the pocket book, and we want them to come here, and hopefully they'll come to the Quad Cities so we can give them a big hug, and hopefully flip them over, and all their money flows out.

That's really the objective.

- When you're talking about major events in the Quad Cities, we just got one, the opening of the new I-74 bridge.

People can zip across between Iowa and Illinois, between Bettendorf and Moline, but your role will be to make sure they're not zipping across, but instead taking a couple of those exits.

I know Moline is really talking about their downtown as well as Bettendorf, making it a magnet for people actually to get off the interstate and visit the downtowns.

Is there a plan in place for that?

- Yeah, there is.

I think if you always draw back to the destination vision and strategic plan that Visit Quad Cities embarked on, that wasn't just necessarily our organization's strategic plan, it's intent and what that has become is really the regional plan for how we're attacking tourism in a 21st century economy.

- Dave Herrell, President and Chief Executive Officer of Visit Quad Cities.

In a moment, an important of the Cities' history, making the most of the Christmas holidays.

But first, Laura Adams has some great ideas for you as we look for fun things to do when we go out and about.

(upbeat music) - [Laura] This is Out & About for December 9th through 16th.

Register your child for the 45th annual Children's Holiday Gifts event at the MLK center in Rock Island, or join the Run Santa Run 5K at the LeClaire Park Band Shell the 11th at 2.

The Geneseo Christmas Walk takes place the 11th from 8:00 to 8:00.

A Mystical YuleTide at The Village Theater happens the 11th from 10:00 to 3:00.

A Handcrafted Christmas at the Muscatine Mall happens the 11th from 10:00 to 1:00.

And the Crafty Cat Indie Art Fest at the RiverCenter happens the 10th and the 11th.

Lucia Nights takes place in Bishop hill the 10th and 11th, starting at 6:00.

On stage, the classic ballet, "The Nutcracker," is performed at the Adler Theater the 11th and 12th.

The Quad City Symphony Orchestra's Holiday Brass perform at St. Paul Lutheran Church, the 12th at 3:00.

"Black Nativity," a gospel song play, is presented at Playcrafters Barn Theater the 10th through 12th.

"A Christmas Carol: On The Air" at The Black Box Theater finishes there on the 11th.

Sound of Music at the Spotlight Theater continues through the 12th.

And "Every Christmas Story Ever Told, and then some," a holiday comedy, closes the 10th at Richmond Hill Players in Geneseo.

Matthew Curry with the Jacob Hemingway Trio and KAS perform at the Redstone Room the 16th.

And Gladys Knight takes the stage at Rhythm City Casino on the 16th.

For more information, visit wqpt.org.

(upbeat music) - Thank you, Laura.

Danika Holmes is a Quad City girl who found her real passion was in music.

It was while she was learning to play the guitar that she met up with Jeb Hart, a guitar teacher in Davenport.

Together, they've been performing since 2010, now based out of Nashville.

Well they sent us a holiday song for us to enjoy this Christmas, so here's Danika and Jeb with "Dancing in the Snow."

(guitar music) ♪ Snowflakes ♪ ♪ They trickle down ♪ ♪ And beautiful blanket ♪ ♪ A wood on the ground ♪ ♪ And yet it's cozy by the fire who could ask for more ♪ ♪ But if we slip off our slippers and head and out the door ♪ ♪ We could be dancing, dancing in the snow ♪ ♪ Your kiss is so warm and then not so cold ♪ ♪ We'd be more than okay ♪ ♪ And holding each other tight ♪ ♪ And I'll sway in to the rhythm night ♪ ♪ Making magic well under stars ♪ ♪ Baby wouldn't you like to go ♪ ♪ Dancing in the snow ♪ (guitar music) ♪ And we checked everything ♪ ♪ And off of our list ♪ ♪ And cookies and milk ♪ ♪ And out for Saint Nick ♪ ♪ And oh string of lights play in the stage ♪ ♪ Softly calling my name ♪ ♪ And we could be dancing, dancing in the snow ♪ ♪ Your kiss is so warm and then not so cold ♪ ♪ We'd be more than okay ♪ ♪ And holding each other tight ♪ ♪ And I'll sway in to the rhythm of the night ♪ ♪ Making magic well under stars ♪ ♪ Baby wouldn't you like to go ♪ ♪ Dancing in the snow ♪ (guitar music) ♪ And I'll sway in to the rhythm of the night ♪ ♪ Making magic well under the stars ♪ ♪ Baby wouldn't you like to go ♪ ♪ Oh baby I'm yours to hold ♪ ♪ And baby wouldn't you like to go ♪ ♪ Dancing in the snow ♪ (gentle guitar music) ♪ Dancing, dancing ♪ ♪ In the snow ♪ - Danika and Jeb, "Dancing in the Snow."

The Christmas holiday seems like a natural time of celebration for the German American Heritage Center in Davenport, and each year the museum workers put together special programs, exhibits, and events to mark the holidays.

But the center is also a year round living history lesson of one of the biggest migration scene in the cities.

We talked with German American Heritage Center Executive Director, Kelly Lao.

So the Christmas season at the German American Heritage Center it's gotta be something more special than the rest of the year.

- Oh yes, it's actually our busiest time of year as well.

We have- - Tell me about, I mean, 'cause what do you do specifically for this time of year?

- Oh, so many things.

So we actually have enhanced our gift shops, so we have tons of different items, as well as specialty cookies and chocolates and different treats available.

We have our ornaments, and beautiful wooden carved items, and even just like little stocking stuffers for kids.

So we have that kind of expanded gift shop as well as doing some different special events around Christmas time.

So one of my favorite things that we do is actually a partnership with the Creative Arts Academy at the Davenport Community School District.

And we work with the seventh graders to kind of create a project where they learn a little bit about German culture, a little bit about German history, and then they create artwork or theatrical works or things around that topic.

And one of the things they create is actually our giant Advent calendar.

So we turn our building into, I'm gonna go ahead and say the largest Advent calendar in the United States.

So if anyone knows of a larger one, we can go head to head (laughs).

- You're really going high there because on the website it says the Midwest's largest, you're now going America's largest.

- No one stopped me at Midwest, (Jim laughs) so I'm just gonna keep going, so.

(both laughs) - Good for you.

Well, let's talk about a couple of those things because the kids artwork, is that the Jugendstil?

- Nope, that's an exhibit we have going on, the Jugendstil.

- Okay, so tell me about that because that's art for all.

And that's gonna be actually closing next month.

So let's talk about that real quickly because people still have a chance, but a very limited chance to come down and see that.

- Yeah.

It's a beautiful exhibit, and I understand because Jugendstil means youth art, so like art for young people.

So you might think that kids in it, but it's actually Art Nouveau and the German version of it.

So we have a gorgeous exhibition that talks about the German contributions to the Art Nouveau movement.

We have beautiful artifacts from Cedar Rapids Czech and Slovak Museum of Alphonse Mucha, who's a very famous Art Nouveau artist.

We have beautiful works from Augustana College.

We have textiles from the Putnam Museum.

And we brought all these together to really tell the story and show examples of how this specific version of Art Nouveau, but actually all over Europe they were practicing this kind of break from previous art movements, and making these beautiful designs that have these whiplash curves, and flowing, and gorgeous design for every aspect of your life.

So it'd be like magazines, and furniture, and wallpaper, and everything just to make your life surrounded by beauty.

One thing I really love about this exhibit is we talk about (speaks foreign language), so art in its entirety.

So like all these pieces coming together to make one piece of art.

So you might think of it as a home with each piece in the home making it a piece of art, or even musically.

So all the instruments come together to make a work of art.

So that's a really gorgeous exhibit that's gonna be closing next month, so we really encourage anyone to come down and see this with all these different collections and artworks from all over the region.

- Well, I mean, we always talk about Christmas, but, I mean, the German American Heritage Center is therefore a reside in the old Standard Hotel.

I mean, that was the meeting point, the focal point, the entry point for the German immigrants that came to Davenport and the Quad Cities.

And you'll always have that exhibit of the German immigrant experience, and I think one of the best things that is a part of that is the Step Into My Shoes part of that exhibit.

I mean, you really wanna try to immerse people into what it was like at that time, and especially when you're seeing now Afghan immigrants arriving in the Quad City area, that we were all based on immigrants.

- Oh yes, and that exhibit really talks about the people and what things were going on in Germany that caused them to leave, because we say immigration, but sometimes it was war that caused people to leave, and had similar experiences where they maybe didn't wanna be conscripted into a service, and they wanted to go to America.

The interesting part about all this is that these tales that we tell in the exhibition, they translate through time from different regions, and you can see different experiences through the ones that we're talking about here in our local community over and over again.

- Kelly, tell me a little bit more about some of the Christmas events that you have, 'cause one of them, of course, is the Christkindl Market.

That's gonna be staying open until December 19th, 'cause like you said, now's the time to eat that German food, and get some of that German crafts, and immerse yourself in old Saint Nick.

- Oh yes, so we are keeping our gift shop running all the way through actually the 23rd.

We have popups of special vendors each weekend.

So that's where the 19th comes in.

So on Friday, Saturday, and Sundays, you'll find different vendors that we normally would have in our one day only Christkindl Market, which we are not doing it in that kind of format this year, we're doing it in the pop-up format.

So if you come in on a weekend, each day you'll find a different vendor selling really unique items handmade here locally.

So shopping here you get the local, shop local, you just support a local organization.

And also you can buy some things that, we actually did get all of our stuff from Germany just about, so (chuckles) we have our European goods.

Additionally, we have been really just enjoying having different artwork from our students at the Creative Arts Academy.

So on the fourth floor we do have a display right now of the prints of the windows that they're doing for our Advent calendars, but also paintings.

The students actually stretched canvas, and made their actual frames and everything to make these artworks.

And what they did is they picked Germans that were famous for bettering the world in some way, or maybe having a great invention, and they took those people and portrayed them through artwork that we have on display on our fourth floor.

And that'll be open through the holiday season as well.

- What are you hoping for 2022?

I know COVID has had so many restrictions.

I know you wanna get back out in the schools as much as possible.

- Oh yes, so we actually are creating a book club that talks about different immigration and refugee issues with middle schoolers.

We are offering a lot of great resources in our traveling trunks that we have coming out where people can, teachers, homeschool, anything can take these trunks and do a lesson that's particular to the grade level.

So it might be German holidays, you could do one on immigration, or even on World War I Anti-German sentiment, which is a very interesting part of history that students more in the high school region might wanna learn.

- Our thanks to German American Heritage Center Executive Director, Kelly Lao.

On the air, on the radio, on the web, on your mobile device, and streaming on your computer, thanks for taking some time to join us as we talk about the issues on "The Cities."

(upbeat music) - [Laura] Wheelan-Presley Funeral Home and Crematory, a proud supporter of WQPT, has been serving Quad City families since 1889.

They now have livestream capabilities for viewing your loved one's funeral or memorial service.

- [Announcer] At IHMVCU, we've always been here for you.

You are and always will be our top priority.

We care about your financial and physical health, and we are here.

IHMVCU is a proud supporter of WQPT.