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You got stats on that? The US has so many other places to ski, some as good or better than Colorado. California, Utah, Oregon, Washington, even Arizona and New Mexico, Wyoming, New England, New York are some of the states which boast skiing. You never heard of Lake Tahoe, Park City, Taos?
Yeah I wouldn't go that far as to say New England or New York have snowboarding or skiing on Colorado's level, they don't. The eastern half of the country doesn't compete with the western half in elevation, mountains, or the like. It would be like comparing Disney World thrill rides to Slappy's Sealion World or something.
Aspen is a power-keg in this country, overpriced, yes but there's a reason why it's one of America's premier luxury ski resorts. Vermont and New Hampshire and such, are not.
What things can Chicago do to attract a larger number of visitors? Some things that come to mind is further continuation of making downtown more mixed use and with more afterhours options as downtown is where most visitors are likely to spend most of their time. Another is to go through with the megaprojects that made Chicago iconic, so building things such as the Chicago spire would help. Another is to make the waterfronts even more attractive such as giving Lake Shore Drive a diet so that it's even more permeable for pedestrians to get to the lakefront and to continue sprucing up all along the riverfront. A seasonal beach scene like a freshwater Rio with towering skyscrapers in sight would be amazing.
All of those things would certainly help, but the most simplistic answer to your question is continued promotion of itself as a destination. Before the most recent numbers came out, Choose Chicago increased its marketing in Asia and Latin America, and lo and behold those two regions were the ones that posted the biggest gains in regards to international tourism in Chicago.
The mayor's office stated that they're hoping to have Chicago within the top 5 for international tourists by 2020, so we'll if the city's promotional efforts continue to pay off.
Also, as a side note, the city is ranked #9 when you don't get rid of tourists from Canada and Mexico. I understand why this list did it, but obviously tourists crossing the border and taking day trips from either country really wouldn't be something that applied to Chicago in the first place.
Does this take into account just the city or the MSA? Because most foreign tourists visiting "LA" are actually usually staying in Santa Monica, Venice, Malibu, Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, Redondo Beach...
Uh, you realize that Hollywood and Venice are LA, right?
And I find it very hard to believe that "most" foreign tourists are staying somewhere peripheral like Redondo Beach. Why would they even stay there? They probably mostly stay in LA.
Maybe 1% of visitors to Chicago would ever see any sort of crime or poverty unless they decided to take a trip down to the south or west sides. There's no reason to go there as a tourist and you're hardly going to just wander over on accident.
What things can Chicago do to attract a larger number of visitors? Some things that come to mind is further continuation of making downtown more mixed use and with more afterhours options as downtown is where most visitors are likely to spend most of their time. Another is to go through with the megaprojects that made Chicago iconic, so building things such as the Chicago spire would help. Another is to make the waterfronts even more attractive such as giving Lake Shore Drive a diet so that it's even more permeable for pedestrians to get to the lakefront and to continue sprucing up all along the riverfront. A seasonal beach scene like a freshwater Rio with towering skyscrapers in sight would be amazing.
Much of those things are already in the works. A $100M expansion of the riverwalk starting this spring will make a huge difference downtown. They're expanding it from State 6 blocks over to Lake Street. Lakeshore Drive is also on the radar, and the bike/running path flyover at Navy Pier is to get underway. Also the revamp of Navy Pier and the reconstruction of Northerly Island are to start moving ahead. Saw a few weeks ago the National Realtors Association wants to tear down their highrise next to the Wrigley Building and put up a 1,000+ foot building on that footprint and an entire block to the west that they bought. They would put up more double decker "streets" to put in plazas framing the entire development and are trying to make it a new solid destination in the city, right on Michigan Ave by the river, right around the corner from Trump. Will be interesting.
Realtor Building and plaza rebuild. They want a nearly 100 story tower with up to 2 million square feet. Office, condo, hotel, retail, etc.
I honestly think things like Divvy bike sharing are huge to bring the city to a more civil level, put more people on the streets and give people more options.
700,000 trips taken and it just started this summer. 300 stations now, mostly on the north side and downtown/central area with another 175 set to open next summer. It's amazing how quickly they've become a very standard fixture in much of the city. There are 3 stations within a 5-6 minute walk from my condo and they're all over by my downtown office.
I don't think people should take Chicago being ranked 10th as an affront. Chicago is a top notch city not just in the US, but North America, and even the world.
Europeans love Disney (especially those from the UK) because it's dirt cheap and they can get some sunshine.
Maybe 1% of visitors to Chicago would ever see any sort of crime or poverty unless they decided to take a trip down to the south or west sides. There's no reason to go there as a tourist and you're hardly going to just wander over on accident.
Reduction of crime and poverty isn't for those who will visit Chicago regardless. It's for those that WANT to see Chicago because they have an interest but cant ever shake the violent moniker the city carries off. My former college roommate is one of those people, the guy hasn't ever been to San Francisco or Chicago, given the choice he would pick San Francisco solely based off Chicago's violent reputation.
Yes, I've told him if he avoided an area like the Westside, he would be fine. Some people just DON'T want to buy a story like that regardless if it's true.
I'm sure he's not the only one to have written Chicago off for crime and he probably wont be the last either.
Also Chicago has alleys, lots of them, all over the Loop. I think those are being wasted by not being used for anything more than where giant trash bins are to keep trash off the sidewalks. It would be GREAT if Chicago did what Sydney was doing and followed Melbourne's model and made active laneways. That would be terrific in Chicago. I mean, if food truck and food cart culture has taken off so sharply in America, then why cant food vendors in laneways have the same success, it would be use of the space very well.
Last edited by Trafalgar Law; 12-10-2013 at 11:24 AM..
The first two, of course. When you say implement laneways, are you talking about how Melbourne transformed its alleys? I tried suggesting that in the Chicago forum before in a topic--didn't really get too many people who were into it. I still think it's a great idea though. That and more large recreational cruises and Lake Michigan and maybe a ridiculous Dubai-esque underwater hotel for Lake Michigan. Another two sort of great things Chicago could do with its great urban infrastructure is to have some street level commerce in some of the different layers of streets it has (since it has some bi and tri level streets) as there's just one bar I know of that's in one of the lower levels (and it's a fantastic one partially because of its odd location) as well as developing a better, more cohesive underground city such as the one Montreal and to some extent Toronto has which can be made into both an interesting attraction for visitors and very functional for the cold winters for residents.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chicago60614
Much of those things are already in the works. A $100M expansion of the riverwalk starting this spring will make a huge difference downtown. They're expanding it from State 6 blocks over to Lake Street. Lakeshore Drive is also on the radar, and the bike/running path flyover at Navy Pier is to get underway. Also the revamp of Navy Pier and the reconstruction of Northerly Island are to start moving ahead. Saw a few weeks ago the National Realtors Association wants to tear down their highrise next to the Wrigley Building and put up a 1,000+ foot building on that footprint and an entire block to the west that they bought. They would put up more double decker "streets" to put in plazas framing the entire development and are trying to make it a new solid destination in the city, right on Michigan Ave by the river, right around the corner from Trump. Will be interesting.
Realtor Building and plaza rebuild. They want a nearly 100 story tower with up to 2 million square feet. Office, condo, hotel, retail, etc.
I honestly think things like Divvy bike sharing are huge to bring the city to a more civil level, put more people on the streets and give people more options.
700,000 trips taken and it just started this summer. 300 stations now, mostly on the north side and downtown/central area with another 175 set to open next summer. It's amazing how quickly they've become a very standard fixture in much of the city. There are 3 stations within a 5-6 minute walk from my condo and they're all over by my downtown office.
These projects are great (though disagree with the family and kid centric work for Northerly Island). That link with a list of various suggestions for Lake Shore Drive is from July--have any decisions been made already?
Uh, you realize that Hollywood and Venice are LA, right?
And I find it very hard to believe that "most" foreign tourists are staying somewhere peripheral like Redondo Beach. Why would they even stay there? They probably mostly stay in LA.
GatsbyGatz didn't mention Hollywood.
And it's very plausible that a lot of tourists would stay in Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, etc., as they are major tourist cities surrounded by the city of LA but with their own municipalities. This is turn can affect LA's tourism numbers depending on whether a report/study is using city or metro stats.
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