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More decline
Wednesday, Mar 26, 2025 - Posted by Rich Miller * Background is here if you need it. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Illinois “Leisure and Hospitality” employment grew by more than 56,000 between January of 2015 and January of 2019. It kept growing through 2019, then, of course, tanked during the pandemic. The sector peaked in February of 2020, but it was 17,400 below that level here as of the end of last year…  The sector has been hard-hit everywhere, but it grew by 3 percent nationally from February of 2020 to December of last year, compared to the 3 percent decline in Illinois.
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- CA-HOON - Wednesday, Mar 26, 25 @ 10:09 am:
I can think of several state-owned parks and historic sites that closed during the Quinn/Rauner years and have not been re-opened which would contribute to more tourists wanting to visit here. In particular the Old Slave House in Saline Co. is a fascinating and beautifully preserved antebellum home with a horror-show history of kidnapping, torture, and murder, but it has sat closed for over a decade now. There are tons of other properties like it that the state has neglected.
Also the focus in Illinois’ ad campaigns seems to be on visiting Chicago, when other areas of the state are very scenic/touristy but just need more promotion/support. For instance, there are 3 major metros (Memphis, Nashville, and STL) that are within 2-4 hours of the Shawnee Hills and its many parks, B&Bs and wineries. Perhaps a few ad campaigns in those cities would bring more visitors.
- Candy Dogood - Wednesday, Mar 26, 25 @ 10:10 am:
Given the current attitudes that we’re creating for would be tourists from abroad, I suspect some of those numbers are going to decline again.
- Amalia - Wednesday, Mar 26, 25 @ 10:28 am:
It’s too bad there’s so much weird going on with leadership in Chicago. It’s truly a perfect destination even for those concerned about national politics. a blue island with lots of fresh water.
- That Guy - Wednesday, Mar 26, 25 @ 10:30 am:
I assume I am reading the graph incorrectly based on the article, but doesn’t that graph show a YOY increase since the pandemic? Isn’t that a good thing?
- Henry - Wednesday, Mar 26, 25 @ 10:39 am:
Chicago in-state tourism tanked and has not recovered. Extremely expensive and people are worried about crime.
- That Guy - Wednesday, Mar 26, 25 @ 10:40 am:
AHH, I see the numbers that are being compared. I misread the last sentence as YOY decline of 3 percent for some reason, not compared to 2020.
- Merica - Wednesday, Mar 26, 25 @ 10:44 am:
Michigan avenue was a core attraction for millions of people. A single point where people could experience chicago architecture, a lake, great food, festivities (like christmas) and a large grouping of flagship retail locations. Due to unfair national conservative media, legitimate poor chicago leadership, and many other factors, Michigan avenue is not what it once was. it is not the same draw, and that means people are not taking weekend trips to chicago for shopping food and entertainment. Trust me, the drop doesn’t pertain to day trip visitors going to a historic house in Saline County, no matter how significant and interesting it might be. IMHo the Illinois ad campaign focuses way too much on downstate illinois.
- James Blessman - Wednesday, Mar 26, 25 @ 11:05 am:
I wonder how much inflation has to do with it. IL isn’t exactly Florida fishing or California wine country. I wonder how much of our tourism was people looking for somewhere to get away that they can drive to with the kids. Now the cost of everything is up making that 2-300 weekend 4-600 as well as making that middle class income seem a lot smaller, making the weekend get away much harder to manage.
Tourism is an optional expense, seems reasonable that it’s something that would get dialed back when money gets tight.
- dead horse beater - Wednesday, Mar 26, 25 @ 11:10 am:
is the converse of spelunking for misery scaling for verisimilitude?
- TheInvisibleMan - Wednesday, Mar 26, 25 @ 11:11 am:
=Michigan avenue is not what it once was.=
Neither are the stockyards. In fact, they are gone. Neither of them are ever coming back to be what they once were.
Economies change. Peoples preferences change. Unfortunately, nostalgia seems to have become our national pastime, and it is incredibly damaging. It’s only purpose when it enters into public policy is to sacrifice the future, in a misguided and resource-wasteful attempt to recreate the past.
- RNUG - Wednesday, Mar 26, 25 @ 12:01 pm:
== nostalgia seems to have become our national pastime ==
Illinois still has RT-66 to sell. Unfortunately, most of that is not in Chicago. And some of it depends on visitors from Europe and Australia. But it is a reasonable day trip for Illinois and nearby states.
- Sue - Wednesday, Mar 26, 25 @ 12:19 pm:
Invisible- quite a stretch to compare the stockyard to Michigan Avenue- problem presently was and is crime snd people feeling unsafe visiting the Gold coast-
- ChicagoBars - Wednesday, Mar 26, 25 @ 12:23 pm:
Everything is complicated but…at least two big factors in this drop are certainly an overall drop in international tourists - a sector that was growing every year pre-pandemic and isn’t close to returning to 2019 levels for Chicagoland and a subset of that has been a slow return of Asian tourists, mostly due to economic concerns in China causing travel recovery here to struggle in particular.
The foreign tourism could be partially offset with robust marketing of more destination events here like Suenos and Lollapalooza festivals but Choose Chicago has been in a leadership holding pattern for quite awhile now.
Older 2022 report from them on International visits. Couldn’t find their 2023 or 2024 reports yet.
https://cdn.choosechicago.com/
uploads/2023/07/International-Visitation-to-Chicago-2022.pdf?
_gl=1*3jm06i*_ga*NjIyMTI2MzI4LjE3MDg5MjE2Njg.*_ga_1TG
MZ2E092*MTcxMDQ4Mzk5Ny44LjAuMTcxMDQ4Mzk5OS41OC4wLjA.%5D
- Mason County - Wednesday, Mar 26, 25 @ 12:27 pm:
A serious concern for Illinois and it is not limited to tourism. Following is some data. You can do your own research as well. The footnote info breaks it down by employment sector. And overall employment as not rebounded as nearly as much as it has in many other states.
Furthermore, much of the growth as been in government jobs.
Illinois Seasonally adjusted employment (non farm)
January 2025 Total 6,159,900 Government 854,900 Unemployment rate 4.9% National 4.0%
January 2020 Total 6,133,800 Government 831,500 Unemployment rate 3.5% National 3.6% Announcement – Thursday, March 19, 2020
Increase 2020 to 2025 Total 26,100 Government 23,400
January 2024 to January 2025 Total increase +36,000 Total Government increase +25,300
https://ides.illinois.gov/content/dam/soi/en/web/ides/news_announcementsdoclibrary/accessible-news-documents/oct2024_statewide.pdf
- TheInvisibleMan - Wednesday, Mar 26, 25 @ 12:40 pm:
=Illinois still has RT-66 to sell.=
The epitome of what I was describing.
Germans love rt66, because it was the backdrop in a book written by the German equivalent of John Steinbeck. That is also why you will see an unusually large number of Germans on tour busses in Death Valley during the early spring months too. And I do mean an unusually large number. As in, it actually came in handy that I took a few years of German in High School.
But americans who want to make everything historical? When asked why it’s so important - “Oh, my parents drove on this road to visit my grandparents house”. Boomers tend to think their own personal life is some important historical event to preserve for posterity. If you take a look at the age demographics of who thinks rt66 is important, it’s pretty clear it’s going to fade away as a thing within about 20 years at most. It will enter forgotten history alongside the “Indian Boundary Lines” which were also tourist draws of a sort in the previous century. How many people today think they are tourist spots, much less know they even existed?
Since it was officially decommissioned as a number, the echoes of popularity around it from the boomer generation get weaker and weaker every 20 years or so. Huge popularity in the 80s when it was first decommed(you probably remember that song in the 80s), then another smaller burst in the 00s. Then the latest and smallest so far, and likely the last echo in the 20s. Many of the non-profits centered on it, especially in the western plains have gone bankrupt in the past few years.
The money spent on rt66 tourism would have been much better used for school lunch programs in every single city and town the road existed in.
Nostalgia for nostalgia sake is damaging to both the present and future when it becomes public policy.
Gettysburg is an important historical site. The diner someone drove past as a kid on the way to grandmas house, is not.
- TheInvisibleMan - Wednesday, Mar 26, 25 @ 12:48 pm:
=problem presently was and is crime s[a]nd people feeling unsafe visiting the Gold coast=
Anyone who doesn’t go to Chicago because they think there is crime on Michigan avenue that would impact them, wasn’t going to go to Chicago in the first place.
They are just afraid of big cities because they decided to listen to the glowing idiot box in their living room.
The decline of Michigan ave is 100% the result of changing economic patterns and preferences. The Walgreens down the street from me didn’t go out of business because of crime. It went out of business because my shopping habits, along with most of my neighbors has shifted to online subscription delivery for most of those same items. Shopping for shopping sake at a specific physical location just isn’t the thing it once was anywhere, including on Michigan avenue.
- Garfield Ridge Guy - Wednesday, Mar 26, 25 @ 1:13 pm:
Why is it so hard to say both that conservative media paints an unfair picture of blue cities, and also Chicago has specific crime and quality-of-life problems that, if taken seriously by its leadership and mitigated, would result in positive outcomes?
- Rich Miller - Wednesday, Mar 26, 25 @ 1:15 pm:
===also Chicago has specific crime and quality-of-life problems===
These are statewide numbers. Y’all have gotten way off track here. Chicago has about 20 percent of the state’s population. Yes, it’s a tourism center, but this is not only about the city.
- Downstate - Wednesday, Mar 26, 25 @ 1:37 pm:
Having an ownership in a small hotel, the employment issue has become an industry nightmare. We’ve had to get creative to address both front desk staffing to the housekeeping staff. Labor is the biggest cost for most hotels.
- ChicagoBars - Wednesday, Mar 26, 25 @ 1:45 pm:
Fair enough Captain CapFax…
Per the delightful Federal Reserve FRED Data…
Leisure and Hospitality Employment statewide in Illinois:
Feb 2020: 630,500
Jan 2025: 613,100
Net change: Down 16,400 jobs
Leisure and Hospitality Employment in Chicago-Naperville-Arlington Heights, IL MSA:
Feb 2020: 401,300
Dec 2024: 370,800
Net change: Down 30,500 industry jobs
(the more local numbers get reported out on more of a lag than statewide)
I am but a humble history major with two D’s in college economics but I’m pretty sure Chicagoland/Chicago are what has dragged the entire statewide hospitality jobs recovery down?
Whether that sluggish recovery is more due to tourism or Mayor Johnson’s City Hall only real policy win is a whole other post though. I honestly don’t think crime has too much to do with it but maybe a little.
Source for the FRED St Louis Fed data:
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/SMU17169747000000001SA
- TNR - Wednesday, Mar 26, 25 @ 1:56 pm:
I think we focus too much on the post pandemic crime issues and don’t focus nearly enough on how remote working has changed the economy. It’s a real challenge to downtown Chicago and other cities (like Springfield.)
Only about 60 percent of the pre-pandemic work force is in the Loop on a daily basis. I imagine the same is true in suburban office centers in spots like Oak Brook and Schaumburg. The effect of that on restaurants is dramatic.
- Thomas Paine - Wednesday, Mar 26, 25 @ 2:27 pm:
@ChicagoBars -
See my post from FRED data.
Hotels, bars and restaurants are making more money than ever before in Illinois.
They are just doing it with a lot fewer employees.
Customers by-and-large have been okay with the decline in service. Fewer servers, fewer cooks. A meal that used to take 45 minutes now takes an hour-and-a-half.
And we are doing alot, alot more carryout than in 2018, and that means no servers.
The goal of business is to make money, not create jobs.
- Which one is Pink - Wednesday, Mar 26, 25 @ 2:29 pm:
I agree with Rich in that it’s not all about the city. Part of the problem is the overall condition of the state’s parks, historic sites, recreational and fish and wildlife areas. Many of these facilities are in need of just basic maintenance. The lodge at Pere Marquette looks a bit long in the tooth and we all know about the issues with New Salem. That’s not all of it. Illinois is behind the times regarding the number of full hookup RV camping sites. Of the hundreds, if not thousands, of campsites maintained by DNR, less than 40 (split between Jim Edgar Panther Creek and Clinton Lake SRA) have full RV hookups with electric, water and sewer at each individual campsite. In contrast, our neighbors across the Mississippi maintain hundreds of these sites. Missouri is in the process of spending $60M upgrading existing campgrounds and adding additional full hookup loops. Additionally, the US Army Corps of Engineers has been upgrading their campgrounds at Rend and Shelbyville Lakes in Illinois and Mark Twain Lake in Missouri. Not everyone wants to use the public showers and prefers the convenience of campsites with full hookups.
- Rich Miller - Wednesday, Mar 26, 25 @ 2:31 pm:
===Part of the problem is the overall condition of the state’s parks===
Everyone’s pet peeves come out in posts like this.
- Which one is Pink - Wednesday, Mar 26, 25 @ 2:33 pm:
Sorry for the rant but we should do better.
- Anonymous - Wednesday, Mar 26, 25 @ 2:48 pm:
Hotels bars and restaurants in Illinois have never had higher profits? What a farce
- low level - Wednesday, Mar 26, 25 @ 2:52 pm:
Michigan Avenue is doing just fine. Tourists and shoppers out every weekend. Those who live in the area see it all the time.
- Anonymous - Wednesday, Mar 26, 25 @ 3:11 pm:
It’s 30% vacant
Get out of the basement and come up to street level
The owners of Water Tower Place turned the property over to the lender and property tax collections have declined from $ 16 to 6.8 million dollars
- Trinity - Wednesday, Mar 26, 25 @ 4:05 pm:
How did not ONE person in this thread yet make the connection between the decline and new immigration policies by the Cheeto? December? You mean when Mexicanos started self deporting after the election? Chicago/Illinois has the SECOND largest Mexican population in the country. The immigrant workforce has been taken for granted and specifically the Mexicano workforce who has been here FOR DECADES. They are the ghost writers to our state’s economy. Cooks, valets, cleaning crews, laundry service, construction, NANNIES, farming, landscaping etc…
The hospitality industry would collapse without the labor of immigrants, especially here in Illinois. We all know Americans are not going to do the back breaking work immigrants do. It will be interesting to see how our state & Chicago survives this tourist season without vital Immigrant labor.
- Thomas Paine - Wednesday, Mar 26, 25 @ 4:17 pm:
Rich would advise me to ignore drive-by Anonymous posters, but here is more data for you.
In FY 2018, Chicago received $288 million in base sales tax disbursements from the Illinois Dept. of Revenue.
In FY 2024, Chicago recieved $391 million in base sales tax disbursements.
That represents nearly a 33% increase in sales in Chicago. Someone is spending money somewhere in Chicago, clearly.
Maybe Amazon is killing retail? And Grubhub is killing dine-in.
But if that’s the issue, your complaint is with Capitalism.
Data:
https://tax.illinois.gov/localgovernments/disbursements/salesrelated/fiscal-year-archive.html
- JS Mill - Wednesday, Mar 26, 25 @ 6:08 pm:
=Nostalgia for nostalgia sake is damaging to both the present and future when it becomes public policy.=
Nostalgia kills rural schools. Hard to make progress and keep your buildings updated when everyone born before 1980 wants the schools to look like they did 40-70 years ago. That includes the student body.
=Anyone who doesn’t go to Chicago because they think there is crime on Michigan avenue that would impact them, wasn’t going to go to Chicago in the first place.=
100% correct.
- Anonymous - Wednesday, Mar 26, 25 @ 6:24 pm:
De Nile is more than a river in Egypt
Of course you missed the tourist with the baby carriage shot last month