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Community

Union Station Re-opens as Destination Center

WVIK News

After a complete re-design, Visit Quad Cities has re-opened Union Station in downtown Davenport.

The "Destination Center" offers visitors maps and brochures, bikes for rent, videos of local attractions, and advice on where to go and what to see.

inside the re-designed Union Station in downtown Davenport
WVIK News
inside the re-designed Union Station in downtown Davenport

Visit QC President and CEO Dave Herrell says it's important to have centers like this for tourists.

"When people travel into a community and they engage with human beings and it's a positive experience in visitor and destination centers, they have a tendency to spend more money. And they do that because of how you make them feel, the information that you can provide, the resources that you can provide."

He thinks this will help the Quad Cities offer visitors what he calls an "un-matched experience."

Also happy with the re-opened Union Station is Davenport Mayor Mike Matson.

"Union Station was a focal point here decades and decades and decades ago and now it is again. When people want to come and visit the downtown there are so many wonderful things here, but now another thing that will connect the Quad Cities, the river, the people that visit, and the people that live here."

The back wall now has the word "welcome" translated into nearly 300 languages. And the old wooden benches are standing on end, and now used as shelves to display Quad Cities souvenirs.

Another center is open in downtown Moline, and plans are in the works to open one in downtown Rock Island.

Community