Illinois Route 66 Blue Carpet Corridor officially disbands

Partly citing effective tourism representation from another group, the Illinois Route 66 Blue Carpet Corridor that marketed Route 66 south of Springfield officially disbanded Dec. 31 and its website was scheduled to be taken down today.

The group made the announcement a few weeks ago via Facebook:

I asked Cheryl Eichar Jett, president of the group since 2014, to elaborate on why it was dissolving:

A big factor was the tremendous growth in scope and impact of Great Rivers and Routes tourism bureau. Formerly Alton Regional CVB, it promoted Alton, Grafton, parts of Jersey County, and the Great River Road. As their path and Blue Carpet Corridor’s were geographically so close, communications began several years ago between our two organizations about possible support of the southern 1/3 of Illinois Route 66. The result is that Great Rivers and Routes took on the additional counties and communities between Springfield and St. Louis to support this section of Illinois Route 66, the “Blue Carpet Corridor.”
As the BCC struggled with low attendance at the last couple of annual events and worked toward a more itinerary-based, year-around approach rather than one annual event, we made the decision to transfer our support and limited resources to Great Rivers and Routes, as well as continued support of Illinois Route 66 Scenic Byway and the Route 66 Association of Illinois.
We realized we’d done our job while GRR and Byway both grew in strength and scope.

It’s my recollection the late Tom Teague was a major figure in the forming of the Illinois Route 66 Blue Carpet Corridor more than 15 years ago because he felt Route 66 near Chicago and its still-going Illinois Route 66 Red Carpet Corridor was getting a disproportionate amount of attention.

If a tourism group is doing such a good job that another tourism group no longer is needed, it’s a good problem to have.

(Image of the Illinois Route 66 Blue Carpet Corridor logo via Facebook)