Tourism creates Chicago hospitality jobs

Posted on April 28, 2015

Record numbers of tourists flocking to the city is creating Chicago hospitality jobs.

Chicago saw record hotel performance in the first quarter of 2015, which ended March 31st. For the first time, hotel room demand surpassed two million rooms occupied and Chicago’s first quarter performance outpaced U.S. growth in all key performance indicators including Demand, Occupancy, Supply, Average Daily Rate, Revenue per Available Room (RevPar) and Revenue.

“Chicago’s tourism industry continues to drive growth in our city’s economy and create new jobs for city residents,” said Mayor Rahm Emanuel. “These newest gains build on last year’s unprecedented growth in visitors and tourism in our city and as new events happen this year, we are excited to see records continue to fall as more visitors spend time in Chicago and bring more economic opportunities to more Chicagoans.”

Closing out the first quarter, March’s demand topped 828,000 room nights, extending Chicago’s record demand performance for a 12th consecutive month. The city’s 7.3 percent occupancy growth puts it ahead of competitive markets including Boston, New Orleans and Atlanta.

Chicago also remains one of the fastest growing domestic markets for new hotel development with record hotel performance continuing even as the city gained an additional 38,000 room nights following the opening of Virgin Hotels Chicago and the Loews Chicago hotel in the first three months of the year.

Chicago’s visitor industry is directly responsible for continued growth in jobs, direct spending and tax revenue. In February, Mayor Emanuel announced that in 2014, Chicago broke the 50 million visitor mark for the first time– five years ahead of the goal set just two years ago when the Mayor consolidated three tourism agencies and launched the new Choose Chicago.