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It's summer in Chicago, so it's not rare to leave your house on a weekend and find yourself in a sea of tourists from the suburbs and beyond. With all of the street festivals, the clean (looking) beaches and all the other jazz, we really can't blame anyone who'd want to come to the city for a few days. We just didn't realize there were 44 million of them.
That's how many of the 91 million visitors to Illinois came to Chicago last year, up about 10 percent from the year before. It's because while Illinois isn't necessarily a place people go for a long vacation, "they" say it's a good weekend or extended weekend place to visit. Most visitors to the city are leisure travelers.
Well, that's okay. The numbers of business travelers have stayed pretty much the same, but hotel's have over seventy-five percent occupancy rates, and we are still a solid convention town. We figure that we can put up with people walking on the wrong side of the sidewalk (it's a big problem!), making street festivals look like keggers and piling on to the train in groups of 20 if they continue to pour their expendable income into the city.
Image via worldofourowndesign.blogs.com.
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and piling on to the train in groups of 20 if they continue to pour their expendable income into the city.
If we keep refusing to fund mass transit we can say bye bye to some of those tourist dollars as well a lot of citizen's dollars. Everything's connected.
Alicia Dorr, formerly of Michigan, wrote:
"It's summer in Chicago, so it's not rare to leave your house on a weekend and find yourself in a sea of tourists from the suburbs and beyond."
This is more ironic than the nice girl who wears a shirt that says "Bad Girl."
Not really, Chuck. People who used to live in Michigan but who are now Chicago residents aren't quite the same as tourists.
Yes, tourists can be annoying. However, it takes me a while to get my bearings when visiting a new city as well so I don't mind. Come on in!
Yes, tourists can be annoying. However, it takes me a while to get my bearings when visiting a new city as well so I don't mind. Come on in!
Yea tourists can be really really annoying especially suburbanites and other "small towned" Midwesterner types. Yea I guess we need the money, but it would be nice to limit them to down town and Wriggle Field and if they really want to go avante garde they can cab it to Lincoln Park because, you know, back in the 60’s real live gang bangers lived there, wow!
As a lifelong Chicagoan (born near Diversey and Sheridan, raised in Lake View), I think its great that tourists come visit our city. In fact, its fun to show them around all the cool places...
Hey, those tourists allow me to get paid for writing drivel about Navy Pier, I like them! (thanks for the link, by the way)
For the sake of this article & discussion, here's an interesting data snapshot from Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau:
2005 Visitor Volume Economic Impact
Total Direct Spending: $9.98 billion
Tax Revenue: $559,600,000
Number of Jobs Created by Chicago Tourism: 128,800
That's pretty impressive. Imagine how things would change for Chicago residents if our tourism industry took a huge hit.
I think it is Alicia opinion that the rich people with "expendable income" have no respect for our city. I think the majority of the people who live in this city do clean up after themselves. Look down any alley, look at the lake front after the weekend and then any CTA train or bus and you will find garbage, smells and unsanitary conditions.
I'm thankful we have tourists and always do my best to help a lost person with a map out when I can. Have you ever visited or lived in a city that does not? There is a reason nobody wants to go there.
Tourists are very important to the local economy. Sure, they get in the way sometimes, but what the heck? Ever been on vacation to a place where the people were rude? It isn't any fun.
Sign me up for the Welcoming Committee!! I, personally, have been a tourist in countless cities all over North America and have been (on more than one occasion) indebted to a kind "local" for directions, advice, translation skills, even car rides. I'm always happy to do the same in my city.
PS. The friendliest places I've been are Arkansas and Mexico. The LEAST friendly place? Cincinnatti.