A record 54.1 million people visited Chicago last year, bolstered by increased numbers of vacationers and business travelers, the city said Thursday.
The 2.9 percent increase over 2015 came despite Chicago’s place in national headlines and social media — including tweets by President-elect Donald Trump — related to its violence.
Part of the boost came from the 31 major meetings and conventions held in the city, eight of which had record-setting attendance. Also, Grant Park hosted the NFL Draft for a second consecutive year, Chicago Cubs fans descended on the city for the World Series and “Hamilton” continues to draw visitors.
“People are lining up and pulling their hair out trying to get tickets to ‘Hamilton’ in New York, and spending thousands of dollars, and I tell my clients, ‘Why don’t you consider Chicago,'” said Laura Madrid, an Atlanta-based travel adviser at Travel Experts.
Chicago’s tourism growth in 2016 was impressive, but the city will need to curb some of the violence continually making headlines to maintain that momentum, said Henry Harteveldt, president of travel industry consistency Atmosphere Research Group.
“This is not good for Chicago’s image,” he said. “I’m concerned it may take a toll on leisure travelers who have complete discretion on where they choose to go.”
The city’s news conference Thursday about its tourism record occurred shortly after hate crime charges were filed against four people shown in a Facebook video allegedly attacking a mentally disabled man in Chicago. A question came up during the conference, and Mayor Rahm Emanuel called the act “sickening.”
Concerns about violence were similar heading into 2016. The city was coming off another year of record-breaking tourism bolstered by the Grateful Dead’s farewell concerts, among other events. But protests following the fatal police shooting of Laquan McDonald generated national interest.
As many as 3,000 additional guest rooms are expected to come online this year at hotels, but David Whitaker, who took over this summer as president and CEO of Choose Chicago, the city’s tourism arm, said he doesn’t anticipate a problem filling rooms. Major meetings and conventions are expected to generate 1.04 million room nights in 2017, up 6.4 percent from 2016.
“We’re adding more visitors to fill that supply,” he said.
Chicago’s tourism industry supported more than 145,000 jobs and $15 billion in direct tourism spending in 2016, according to the city.
At the news conference, Emanuel noted that before 2011, the city’s tourism industry was driven primarily by convention and business traffic. “We were fighting below our weight class as it related to the cultural capacity of the city,” the mayor said.
In 2012, the city combined multiple groups to launch Choose Chicago as the city’s tourism organization, which promotes many of Chicago’s cultural attractions. Emanuel later set a goal to reach 55 million visitors a year by 2020. He said Thursday that he may need to “rejigger” that goal.
Twitter @AllyMarotti
