Chicago Tourism: How would you improve it? (Manhattan, Plymouth: luxury, casino)

[jonnynonos]

Originally Posted by Chi-town Native

...washed down with 10,000 calories of craft beer!

That I can get behind.

I just think people miss out seeing the real authentic cool stuff in a lot of cases.

And sometimes you try to throw it out there but they are not interested.

C'est la vie!

[jonnynonos]

Originally Posted by Drover

...potentially making for a 20,000-calorie pile of yack.


EDIT: Man some of the auto-censored words in this place are just head-scratchers. Can anyone think of any plausible reason why the word y-a-k would be censored?

"There shall be no references to barf on City Data."

[mas23]

I think a statue would probably do.

That and tv shows/movies

Its crazy how some people are easily influenced by the media.

mas23

[marothisu]

I agree with the whole historical thing + monuments. People at that **** up for real. The Bean is a good example. It's not historic and it's just an interesting big "statue" and it draws huge crowds.

I was recently in Istanbul again with my girlfriend, her first time there. Amazing historical city right, but a few of the things are just like "why?" The Basilica Cistern was one of the main water supply cisterns in the ancient city. I've been there enough times but my girlfriend was just saying "why the **** did we just pay 10 lira for that?" It's just an underground, albeit ominous and cool, cavern BUT people eat. that. ****. up because they know it had to do with the Byzantines and Romans and whoever else. It was important because it stored water for the city (and disease) but they know how to market this stuff and get huge lines queued up to be in it.


Chicago has some historical things although for someone from many areas of the world, it's probably not as interesting to them as it might be to an American. With the food and entertainment deal, Chicago can definitely live up to a lot of cities around the world regarding that. I just think the deal is poor marketing and also the safety thing. I'm in Malaysia right now and my girlfriend's parents, when we were talking about safety of the US, right away brought up how they thought Chicago was violent all over the place. We had to tell them it's not really like that and IMO that type of thing can play a huge role in tourism. Mind you, this is coming from people who were warning me about not leaving expensive things (i.e. phones) at the food table at some restaurants in their country because random gangs will come in and rob everyone in the restaurant of their belongings.

Although I'm not a big fan of typical tourists as I live "downtown," I understand how important it is.

[jdiddy]

Emathias, you should be da mare.

[A2DAC1985]

Originally Posted by marothisu

I agree with the whole historical thing + monuments. People at that **** up for real. The Bean is a good example. It's not historic and it's just an interesting big "statue" and it draws huge crowds...

I have a great idea... dare I say brilliant.


I just got this idea while reading through this thread. It's insanely cheap, extremely historical, and gets people out and about in the city.


Do we all know what the Freedom Trail is? Here's a map of it: http://www.thefreedomtrail.org/maps/...on-nps-map.pdf


Now what about a walking path that encompasses the area burned down in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871?

...

Here's a map of what burned to the ground: Progress of the Chicago Fire of 1871;* Michael P. Conzen with research assistance from Christopher P. Thale, and cartographic design by Dennis McClendon, from Electronic Encyclopedia of Chicago, reproduced with permission of the Newberry Library. | T


While the Freedom Trail in Boston takes people to various sites that were important to the founding of our country, the Great Chicago Fire Trail would give people a real idea of how much of Chicago was literally destroyed... and what was built after, ergo the "Second City" nickname.

And how cheap would it be? Hell, just paint a line down existing sidewalks, and maybe add sidewalks where need be, some mile markers... maybe some plaques or something, then call it a day. Using my very rough estimates in google maps, it would be 10-15 miles long and cover a lot of ground that typical tourists wouldn't go to on their own.

But if there was a line they could follow and know it was "historical", well, that's a different story.

[urza216]

I don't think anything should be done to promote more tourism. I think Chicago gets plenty of tourist dollars but mountains of other problems it needs to work on.

[urza216]

Originally Posted by jonnynonos

"There shall be no references to barf on City Data."

It has nothing to do with barf. That's the user name of a City Data adminstator - someone you would report moderator behavior to. And yeah, you can't post his or her name in the public forum.

I'm surpsided Drover (member since 06) doesn't know who Y@k is.

[Chicagoist123]

Originally Posted by urza216

I don't think anything should be done to promote more tourism. I think Chicago gets plenty of tourist dollars but mountains of other problems it needs to work on.

I don't think it needs more tourism per say, but I certainly think its needs a boost in its international image and reputation.

[Chicagoist123]

Originally Posted by A2DAC1985

I have a great idea... dare I say brilliant.


I just got this idea while reading through this thread. It's insanely cheap, extremely historical, and gets people out and about in the city.


Do we all know what the Freedom Trail is? Here's a map of it: http://www.thefreedomtrail.org/maps/...on-nps-map.pdf


Now what about a walking path that encompasses the area burned down in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871?

...

Here's a map of what burned to the ground: Progress of the Chicago Fire of 1871;* Michael P. Conzen with research assistance from Christopher P. Thale, and cartographic design by Dennis McClendon, from Electronic Encyclopedia of Chicago, reproduced with permission of the Newberry Library. | T


While the Freedom Trail in Boston takes people to various sites that were important to the founding of our country, the Great Chicago Fire Trail would give people a real idea of how much of Chicago was literally destroyed... and what was built after, ergo the "Second City" nickname.

And how cheap would it be? Hell, just paint a line down existing sidewalks, and maybe add sidewalks where need be, some mile markers... maybe some plaques or something, then call it a day. Using my very rough estimates in google maps, it would be 10-15 miles long and cover a lot of ground that typical tourists wouldn't go to on their own.

But if there was a line they could follow and know it was "historical", well, that's a different story.

Creative, but wouldn't help very much. I mean most people have never really heard of the Freedom Trail in Boston. TBH while Chicago has history, it's still too young to sell on that.