Making Chicago a premier destination for tourism and entertainment is a major part of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s Plan for Economic Growth & Jobs that WBC is implementing to drive growth in Chicago. Choose Chicago, the official destination marketing organization for Chicago, also plays an integral role in economic growth by attracting business and leisure visitors to the city.

Chicago was recently named the nation’s #2 travel destination in Condé Nast Traveler’s annual Readers’ Choice Awards. The Virgin Hotels Chicago ranked as the #1 hotel in the U.S. and #6 in the world. “This recognition shows that our efforts to bring even more visitors to the city are working and driving economic opportunities in Chicago’s neighborhoods” said Mayor Emanuel. Read more about the awards in the Mayor’s press release.

The following points summarize recent tourism, hotel and air passenger trends for Chicago:

• Hotel room demand in the Central Business District was 1,041,074 rooms occupied in September, a 6.8% increase from 974,937 rooms a year ago.
• The overall average daily rate (ADR) was $242.88 in September, up from $231.15 in September 2015.
• The Chicago Central Business District has 119 hotel properties comprising nearly 40,000 rooms. Recently opened hotels include the AC by Marriott (217 rooms), the Hyatt Place Chicago (206 rooms) and the SOHO House Chicago (40 rooms).
• More than 3,100 new rooms are expected to open in the next two years, including the Ace Hotel (150 rooms, 2016), The Robey, Wicker Park (69 rooms, 2016), Sheraton Hotel (175 rooms, 2017), Marriott Marquis Chicago (1,200 rooms, 2017) and Viceroy Hotel (2017).
• O’Hare – the world’s busiest airport in terms of flight operations – and Midway International airports served a combined 9.49 million air passengers in August 2016, a 1.3% increase over last August.

Average daily rate and room demand trends are illustrated in the following charts:

Source: Choose Chicago; Chicago Department of Aviation. For more information on Chicago’s tourism landscape, please refer to the Choose Chicago website and 2015 Annual Report.

Chaired by Mayor Rahm Emanuel, World Business Chicago is the public-private partnership leading the Plan for Economic Growth and Jobs in order to drive business development, cultivate talent, and put Chicago at the forefront of the global economy.

WBC’s “Economic Briefs” track indicators from month to month to gauge the strength of several aspects of Chicago’s economy, including unemployment, population, venture capital, job openings and new hires, home sales, tourism, etc. This data provides a clear analytic framework for specific Plan strategies and initiatives. For a summary of these and other economic indicators, refer to WBC’s monthly Chicago By The Numbers.