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HOUSE RESOLUTION 133

 
2    WHEREAS, Tourism is a crucial and growing component of the
3Illinois economy; and
 
4    WHEREAS, It is an established State policy to recognize and
5support the economic impact of tourism, particularly to Chicago
6where the greatest potential economic impact for the State can
7be enjoyed; and
 
8    WHEREAS, In order to dramatically increase the economic
9impact of tourism, Choose Chicago has recently announced an
10ambitious goal of 50 million annual visitors to Chicago and has
11placed Chicago in the expected top 5 U.S. destinations for
12international travel by 2020; and
 
13    WHEREAS, It is in the interest of the entire State of
14Illinois to help reach that goal of 50 million annual visitors
15to Chicago by 2020; and
 
16    WHEREAS, Increasing visitors to Chicago has a secondary
17benefit of exposing those visitors to potential trips
18throughout Illinois; and
 
19    WHEREAS, Most tourists to Illinois come from the Midwest as
20the top 5 states providing visitors to Illinois in 2011 were

 

 

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1Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Missouri,
2according to the Department of Commerce and Economic
3Opportunity's 2011 Economic Impact of Tourism report; and
 
4    WHEREAS, Illinois hosted 93.3 million visitors in 2011, a
510% increase aver 2010, fueled by an 11.8% increase in leisure
6travel according to the same report; and
 
7    WHEREAS, Because most of our visitors come from the Midwest
8now, the most likely source for finding additional tourists to
9achieve the goal of 50 million annual visitors to Chicago is
10from the states in the Midwest; and
 
11    WHEREAS, The residents of many smaller communities in the
12Midwest who are the target market for tourists do not have
13access to affordable, frequent, convenient flights to Chicago,
14either because there isn't a nearby airport or because the
15flights from their airport to Chicago are not affordable,
16frequent, or convenient; and
 
17    WHEREAS, Driving more than 100 miles can be very
18inconvenient, particularly due to the relatively high cost of
19parking in Chicago (especially compared to the low-cost or
20no-cost of parking in much of the Midwest) and the significant
21traffic congestion around Chicago; and
 

 

 

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1    WHEREAS, Many downstate communities with tourist
2attractions do not have any air service at all, requiring an
3alternative way of bringing tourists to their communities; and
 
4    WHEREAS, The State of Illinois has been a leader in
5investing in Amtrak to provide more intercity passenger train
6service, doubling the frequency of round-trips in 2006 and
7investing State funds in improving the infrastructure of the
8St. Louis-Springfield-Normal-Joliet-Chicago line; and
 
9    WHEREAS, Ridership on Amtrak service has broken records
10every year for the last 5 years; and
 
11    WHEREAS, A majority of Amtrak riders on weekends, and a
12significant amount on weekdays, are not business travelers but
13are rather leisure travelers or traveling to visit family or
14friends, according to a State-authorized 2011 survey of
15passengers aboard the Milwaukee-Chicago Amtrak Hiawatha
16service; therefore, be it
 
17    RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
18NINETY-EIGHTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
19we fully support the goal of 50 million annual visitors to
20Chicago by 2020; and be it further
 
21    RESOLVED, That we recognize that the majority of these

 

 

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1additional tourists are likely to come from the Midwest; and be
2it further
 
3    RESOLVED, That the easiest way to get tourists from the
4Midwest to visit Chicago is to make it easier for tourists from
5the Midwest to visit Chicago; and be it further
 
6    RESOLVED, That we call upon all other stakeholders in the
7tourism economy to recognize that offering more affordable,
8frequent, convenient passenger train service, both through
9expanding Amtrak and through new high speed rail connecting
10midwest communities to Chicago is a crucial strategy to reach
11our economic goal of 5O million annual visitors to Chicago by
122020.