The Great Lakes USA has welcomed new preferred partners into the consortium at the start of 2018, bringing the total number to thirteen:

Chicago North Shore CVB, home of the  Northwestern university and the Chicago Botanic Garden

Rockford, Illinois which is home of the sock monkey and a 65 million year old T. rex at the Burpee Museum of Natural History

DuPage Convention and Visitors Bureau, Illinois where the world famous Medinah golf course is located and hosted the Ryder Cup in 2012

Visit Champaign County, a city in Illinois where President Lincoln frequently visited practising law and home of the University of Illinois

Cleveland in Ohio, home to the world famous Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, is focusing on the international market in 2018 and is also committing to the Great Lakes as a Preferred Partner.

There are new UK flights going into the city starting May onwards from Wow Air and Icelandair. Wow is also starting UK flights into the Great Lakes cities of Detroit (April) and Cincinnati (May) this year and Norwegian is launching a flight from London Gatwick to Chicago O’Hare from March.

Toby McCarrick, executive director of Great Lakes USA said: “Great Lakes USA is on a roll in 2018 with new flights into the region and new Preferred Partners. We look forward to working closely with them to expand our long-term regional marketing initiative. By securing these committed partners, we can increase our sales/marketing efforts and become even more successful at driving international travel to the Great Lakes states. The new flights into the region from Icelandair, Wow and Norwegian, starting from March 2018, will make the region even more accessible and cost effective for the UK traveller.”

The consortium consists of the Great Lakes region of the United States and exists to promote international tourism to the area; the current member states are Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Indiana, Ohio and Wisconsin. Great Lakes Preferred Partner Programme allows destinations and attractions within each member state to be part of the international tourism effort and participate in sales missions, trainings, roadshows and events.

The new Preferred Partners will be represented on the upcoming Great Lakes USA sales mission to London and Ireland in April 2018, as well as at World Travel Market later in the year.