Is Chicago Tourism mostly Domestic? (transfer, price, shop)

[Dream Chaser]

I read a article that Emanuel is opening more international tourism offices. Chicago has the least offices compared to NY,LA,SF,LV and Miami. I understand Chicago may not have international tourists in large amounts but Chicago tourist isn't all domestic .Some say Chicago tourists are all from the mid-west, I find it untrue. Chicago has a little over 40 million tourists annually.Even if every single resident from Iowa,Minnesota, Wisconsin,Indiana visited that's only count for half.Tourism industry is good for a city's economy. Emanuel wants Chicago to hit the 50 million annually mark by 2020.

[Vlajos]

I think you answered you're own question. Most tourists here are domestic, though I think we were #9 in US in terms of foreign tourists. Rahm wants to increase that.

I was on Michigan Avenue during Christmas, there was a family next to us in the check out line of a high end fashion retailer. They were from Indy complaining about how poor shopping is down there. They drove up for the weekend to deck out their teenage kids in new clothes. Made me appreciate our options here a lot more.

[UnderTheLiveOaks]

"Mostly"? Probably. In the sense that even if we had tens of millions of international visitors, it'd be tough to overtake the raw number of domestic tourists. But I was around Millennium Park the other day and I heard more than a few foreign languages being spoken, and most of the folks in that park aren't locals.

[Manigault]

I work in the Loop and everyday see foreign tourists with their maps trying to navigate the city. Usually they are chattering away in some foreign language.

[Alacran]

Yes mostly domestic.
Everytime I hang around downtown there's people from other countries though.
Some ladys from spain, some french girls,always some chinese speaking people, idk if indians are from india but they're always taking pictures.

[Feeling Brackish]

While there are probably more domestic tourists than not, Chicago definitely gets a lot of international tourists. I've waited tables downtown for five years, and I get customers every single day who are visiting from other countries.

[Jandur]

I think the problem is Chicago will always lag behind NY. If you are foreign and going to come to America, why Chicago instead of NYC?

[Alacran]

Plus chicago is not on a coast.
They. Would land on either l.a. , nyc, miami, or san fran before getting to CHI

Why make the extra effort to come to chi?
Only thing chicago has is probably price

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by Alacran

Plus chicago is not on a coast.
They. Would land on either l.a. , nyc, miami, or san fran before getting to CHI

Why make the extra effort to come to chi?
Only thing chicago has is probably price

That's not necessarily true. O'Hare is 5th busiest (at least 2010) for international travel ..ahead of San Francisco.

There are flights coming from all over into O'Hare, but the reason they'd go to NYC or LA first is not because of this..it's because those are more well known cities in general.

[Alacran]

But it's the busiest simply because of refueling, transferring, etc.
It's just a pit stop