Tourists Like Us! They Really, Really Like Us!

According to statistics from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, the amount of money tourists spent in the state was up in 2008 by nearly a billion dollars ($883 million, to be exact) for a grand total of $30.8 billion. Overall, the state also saw a 21-percent increase in visitors from overseas (1.4 million overall). While the number of tourists hitting our fair city declined by 2.1 percent over 2007's record-setting year (a total of 44.21 million) but the good news (besides the fact we're Johnny Depp's favorite U.S. city) is that they spent a little bit more time here than they did in 2007. [Crain's]