* Crain’s…

llinois hotels pulled in a record amount of tax revenue for the state during the past 12 months, another benchmark in the hospitality sector’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic that devastated it.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker today announced that the state collected nearly $308 million in hotel tax revenue during its 2023 fiscal year, which ended on June 30. The figure was up 36% from the 2022 fiscal year and topped the previous record high of $296 million the state pulled in from hotels during its 2019 fiscal year.

The hotel tax revenue number is still below pre-pandemic levels when factoring in inflation, but remains an important financial boost for a state that has leaned more heavily in recent years on taxes tied to tourism and the convention industry.

Statewide hotel tax proceeds fell as low as $93 million during the fiscal year that ended in mid-2021, a drop-off that forced multiple public agencies that rely on hotel taxes to dip deep into their reserves to maintain operations or make debt service payments. […]

Visitation statewide totaled 111.3 million in 2022, the state reported. That was up 14% year over year, though still below the 122.8 million visitors that came to Illinois in 2019.

As noted in the article, the new revenue numbers did not outpace inflation. The $296 million collected through June of 2019 would equal $351.45 million in the most recent available calculation (May) from the BLS inflation calculator. That’s $43.45 million below revenues collected in FY2023.

Even so, the trend appears friendly.

* Sun-Times…

Three consecutive Taylor Swift concerts last month helped to break an all-time hotel weekend occupancy record in Chicago.

Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity Director Kristin Richards credited the Enjoy Illinois 300 NASCAR race, held last month in Madison near the Missouri border, with boosting tourism downstate. Rend Lake and Walkers Bluff in southern Illinois also saw an increase in tourism.

The Illinois Hotel and Lodging Association said record attendance at the 2022 Illinois State Fair, Lollapalooza and Suenos music festivals in Chicago and the John Deere Classic in the Quad Cities also helped boost hotel numbers. Having the Illinois Legislature back in full session for the first time since 2020 helped downtown Springfield — and corporate relocations, such as Rivian in Bloomington, also helped increase hotel traffic.

State and local tax revenue from visitor spending totaled in $4.2 billion in 2022, according to a Tourism Economics Report. The report also noted there were 270,600 workers in the state’s tourism and hospitality industry, an increase of 38,300 jobs from 2021.

* Tribune…

The record hotel revenue likely reflects higher room rates, however, as occupancy remains below pre-pandemic levels in Chicago, the state’s largest hotel market, according to data from Choose Chicago, the city’s tourism arm. Illinois did not provide statewide hotel occupancy rates. […]

The state’s tourism industry was essentially cut in half during the depths of the pandemic, bottoming at 67 million visitors and $23 billion in spending in calendar year 2020, according to the data. In April 2022, the state launched the $30 million “Middle of Everything” TV campaign featuring Illinois-born actress and comedian Jane Lynch.

* Capitol News Illinois…

Michael Jacobson, president of the Illinois Hotel and Lodging Association, said that while revenues have returned, staffing levels and occupancy rates overall have not yet reached pre-pandemic levels, although they were trending toward recovery.