Robert Channick
\n\u00a0|\u00a0 Chicago Tribune<\/p>\n
Chicago\u00a0may be a \u201chellhole\u201d according to President\u00a0Donald Trump, but the city by the lake proved a pretty attractive destination for visitors over the summer, generating records for hotel occupancy and revenue.<\/p>\n
From June through August, hotels in Chicago\u2019s\u00a0Central Business District\u00a0booked nearly 3.6 million room nights, a 4.3% gain over 2024 that topped the pre-COVID record in the summer of 2019, according to data released Tuesday by Choose Chicago, the city\u2019s tourism arm.<\/p>\n
Chicago\u00a0hotels also set a new revenue record, generating $949 million over the three months, up 0.8% over\u00a0last summer<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had a record-breaking summer,\u201d said\u00a0Kristen Reynolds, Choose Chicago\u2019s president and CEO. \u201cAnd we\u2019re doing it in a time with incredible headwinds, where most other tourism destinations are happy to be flat and not significantly down.\u201d<\/p>\n Those headwinds included everything from reduced international travel to the\u00a0U.S.\u00a0in the wake of Trump\u2019s immigration and tariff policies to a domestic economic slowdown. In addition, the president\u2019s threatened military intervention and inflammatory rhetoric aimed at\u00a0Chicago\u00a0have not necessarily painted a \u201cwish you were here\u201d picture postcard image for the city.<\/p>\n International tourism to\u00a0Chicago\u00a0was down 3.0% year-over-year during the summer, but the increase of domestic visitation was up, boosted by the \u201cdrive market\u201d \u2014 people within five hours of the city \u2014 including suburbanites booking downtown hotels for a weekend getaway, Reynolds said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re seeing a much bigger demand from the drive market and regional market, so that\u2019s where we\u2019re putting a lot of attention,\u201d Reynolds said. \u201cYou\u2019re going to be seeing a lot of\u00a0Chicago\u00a0marketing to those people.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2024, the city welcomed an estimated 55.3 million visitors, generating $20.6 billion in economic impact, according to Choose Chicago. The increase in summer hotel demand is a \u201cgreat indicator\u201d for the trajectory of tourism this year, Reynolds said.<\/p>\n While there was no\u00a0Taylor Swift\u00a0concert or\u00a0Democratic National Convention\u00a0this summer,\u00a0Chicago\u00a0had a number of high-profile events that drew record visitors to the city, according to Choose Chicago.<\/p>\n The four strongest hotel weekends were: 92,643 room nights driven by the Nike Tournament of Champions at\u00a0McCormick Place\u00a0and BLACKPINK at Soldier Field in July; 91,559 room nights over\u00a0Labor Day\u00a0weekend; 91,384 room nights during Pride Fest in June; and 91,049 room nights when\u00a0Lollapalooza hit in early August<\/a>.<\/p>\n These were not only the four biggest hotel weekends of the summer, but the biggest of all time, according to Choose Chicago.<\/p>\n \u201cHotels throughout\u00a0Chicago\u00a0are encouraged by this momentum and look forward to continuing to welcome more visitors to our amazing city,\u201d\u00a0Michael Jacobson, president and CEO of the\u00a0Illinois Hotel & Lodging Association, said in a news release. \u201cBut we cannot rest on recent successes, as our industry faces a host of challenges caused by rising costs and ongoing economic uncertainty.\u201d<\/p>\n One event that didn\u2019t make the top four list was the third and potentially\u00a0final NASCAR Chicago Street Race<\/a>\u00a0over the July Fourth weekend.<\/p>\n An economic impact study from the race weekend is expected to be released by Choose Chicago this month.\u00a0NASCAR\u00a0has \u201cpaused\u201d the event for next year and is headed instead for a\u00a0San Diego\u00a0street race<\/a>, but has expressed interest in returning to\u00a0Chicago\u00a0on a different weekend in 2027.<\/p>\n Topping pre-pandemic hotel occupancy and revenue over the summer is a source of both revenue and civic pride for\u00a0Chicago, Reynolds said. The latter may be especially important in the face of relentless criticism from the Trump administration, which has stepped up its ICE enforcement actions in the city and threatened increased military presence to combat violent crime, despite a 29% year-over-year reduction in murders through September, according to\u00a0Chicago Police Department\u00a0data.<\/p>\n Last month, Trump seemed to declare war on\u00a0Chicago\u00a0in a social media post branded \u201cChipocalypse Now,\u201d which showed helicopters flying past the city\u2019s skyline ablaze.<\/p>\n