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1 | | HOUSE RESOLUTION 133
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2 | | WHEREAS, Tourism is a crucial and growing component of the |
3 | | Illinois economy; and |
4 | | WHEREAS, It is an established State policy to recognize and |
5 | | support the economic impact of tourism,
particularly to Chicago |
6 | | where the greatest potential economic impact for the State can |
7 | | be enjoyed; and |
8 | | WHEREAS, In order to
dramatically increase the economic |
9 | | impact of tourism, Choose Chicago has recently announced an |
10 | | ambitious goal of 50 million annual visitors to
Chicago and has |
11 | | placed Chicago in the expected top 5 U.S. destinations for |
12 | | international travel by 2020; and |
13 | | WHEREAS, It is in the interest of the entire State of |
14 | | Illinois to help reach that goal of 50 million annual
visitors |
15 | | to Chicago by 2020; and |
16 | | WHEREAS, Increasing visitors to Chicago has a secondary |
17 | | benefit of exposing those visitors to
potential trips |
18 | | throughout Illinois; and |
19 | | WHEREAS, Most tourists to Illinois come from the Midwest as |
20 | | the top 5 states providing visitors to
Illinois in 2011 were |
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1 | | Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Missouri, |
2 | | according to the Department
of Commerce and Economic |
3 | | Opportunity's 2011 Economic Impact of Tourism report; and |
4 | | WHEREAS, Illinois hosted 93.3 million visitors in 2011, a |
5 | | 10% increase aver 2010, fueled by an
11.8% increase in leisure |
6 | | travel according to the same report; and |
7 | | WHEREAS, Because most of our visitors come from the Midwest |
8 | | now, the most likely source for
finding additional tourists to |
9 | | achieve the goal of 50 million annual visitors to Chicago is |
10 | | from the states
in the Midwest; and |
11 | | WHEREAS, The residents of many smaller communities in the |
12 | | Midwest who are the target market for
tourists do not have |
13 | | access to affordable, frequent, convenient flights to Chicago, |
14 | | either because there
isn't a nearby airport or because the |
15 | | flights from their airport to Chicago are not affordable, |
16 | | frequent, or
convenient; and |
17 | | WHEREAS, Driving more than 100 miles can be very |
18 | | inconvenient, particularly due to the relatively
high cost of |
19 | | parking in Chicago (especially compared to the low-cost or |
20 | | no-cost of parking in much of the
Midwest) and the significant |
21 | | traffic congestion around Chicago; and |
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1 | | WHEREAS, Many downstate communities with tourist |
2 | | attractions do not have any air service at all,
requiring an |
3 | | alternative way of bringing tourists to their communities; and |
4 | | WHEREAS, The State of Illinois has been a leader in |
5 | | investing in Amtrak to provide more intercity
passenger train |
6 | | service, doubling the frequency of round-trips in 2006 and |
7 | | investing State funds in
improving the infrastructure of the |
8 | | St. Louis-Springfield-Normal-Joliet-Chicago line; and |
9 | | WHEREAS, Ridership on Amtrak service has broken records |
10 | | every year for the last 5 years; and |
11 | | WHEREAS, A majority of Amtrak riders on weekends, and a |
12 | | significant amount on weekdays, are not
business travelers but |
13 | | are rather leisure travelers or traveling to visit family or |
14 | | friends, according to a
State-authorized 2011 survey of |
15 | | passengers aboard the Milwaukee-Chicago Amtrak Hiawatha |
16 | | service;
therefore, be it |
17 | | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE |
18 | | NINETY-EIGHTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that |
19 | | we fully support the goal of 50 million annual visitors to |
20 | | Chicago by 2020; and be it further |
21 | | RESOLVED, That we recognize that the majority of these |
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1 | | additional tourists
are likely to come from the Midwest; and be |
2 | | it further |
3 | | RESOLVED, That the easiest way to get tourists from the |
4 | | Midwest to visit Chicago is
to make it easier for tourists from |
5 | | the Midwest to visit Chicago; and be it further |
6 | | RESOLVED, That we call upon all other stakeholders in the |
7 | | tourism
economy to recognize that offering more affordable, |
8 | | frequent, convenient passenger train service, both
through |
9 | | expanding Amtrak and through new high speed rail connecting |
10 | | midwest communities to
Chicago is a crucial strategy to reach |
11 | | our economic goal of 5O million annual visitors to Chicago by
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12 | | 2020.
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