10 New Attractions That Will Help Chicago Reach its 2020 Tourism Goals

[AMWChicago]

I think the 606 is going to be a local destination for a view years, only due to its location (that being outside downtown). But I think given time tourists will begin to expand up Milwaukee and to parts of Bucktown and Wicker Park, where they will meet the 606 and spur tourism in an area that doesn't see much.

But let's be honest. The city didn't build the 606 for tourism. It was build for Chicago.

[williepotatoes]

Originally Posted by Lookout Kid

And illustrious cities like Hammond, Joliet, Elgin, and Des Planes.

Frankly, a Casino adds basically NOTHING to Chicago, other than the wonderful segment of society that loves to gamble. I'm happy exporting them to the cities listed above.

I think I'm with you on this one. With this cities propensity for corruption and financial blundering, I can't see any chance of the state allowing Chicago to have much of a role in Casino operations. And Rahm has his head in the clouds if he really thinks he's going to get all the revenue for the first seven years. That casino will be a mother pig with a hundred nipples and a little piglet milking on every one. Every taxing body in the state will petition Springfield for a piece of what Illinois will take out of there.

A casino is certainly possible, but I think the political roadmap there is going to be dizzying and
the city will have to dial down it's revenue expectations. The continuing expansion of gambling in Illinois is going to reach a saturation point. Just witness all the new video gambling storefronts popping up in strip malls now, they don't exactly have what could be called an elegant clientele.

[OyCrumbler]

On a national and possibly international level, the only ones that would attract people would be the Lucas Museum and the Obama library. Everything else would likely be on a local or regional level because it would never receive the requisite amount of interest and hype without it being really extravagant.

Casinos won't do it either. Casinos will generally just drain the money of the citizens into certain corporations unless the city goes full force as a destination casino. Otherwise, you're just preying on the citizens of the local community and putting the same money that would have gone into the region into circulation through the casino with a bit off the top. Sort of like a metropolitan GDP version of robbing Peter due to his crippling gambling addiction to pay Paul, the multinational gambling game runner corporation who may or may not spend the proceeds in your area.

What probably makes the most sense is to pour more funding into UIC and to make the areas the incoming students from the Art Institute and UIC down to the Illinois Institute of Technology down to University of Chicago so enthralled with the city that they end up planting themselves in Chicago to try to make a go of it with their careers and potential businesses.

[edsg25]

i get a sense that a casino in chicago (depending on placement) would probably be going more for the convention trade than the tourist trade.