Travel News

The tourism industry appears to be slipping for the first time in recent years, slowed by a potent cocktail of rising airfares and falling economic fortunes. And the slide is likely to intensify this fall as airlines slash their flight schedules.

Downtown Chicago hotel occupancy rates dipped to 65.2 percent during the first five months of this year, from 67.4 percent in the year-earlier period—the first erosion of strength in such a time frame since 2004, according to data from Smith Travel Research.

Nationwide, hotel occupancy dropped to 66.7 percent for those months, down from 68 percent in the year-ago period.
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Tags: Chicago, rising airfares, tourism industry
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Despite the country’s economic downturn, tourism continues to thrive in Illinois, Governor Rod Blagojevich announced this week. In fact, the economic impact of tourism in the state increased by more than $1.6 billion in 2007 to a record-setting $29.9 billion, according to the Travel Industry Association of America (TIA).

Visitors to Illinois spent nearly $82 million in state businesses last year, the TIA reports, adding that domestic travel expenditures in Illinois increased by 5.2 percent to $27.9 billion. International expenditures in the state, meanwhile, increased by 15.6 percent to $1.9 billion.
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Tags: Chicago, illinois, Travel Industry Association of America
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