Choose Chicago finally has a new head honcho in Kristen Reynolds, formerly the CEO of the tourism agency Discover Long Island. Reynolds will have her work cut out for her and not just because marketing Chicago is a whole lot more complicated than selling Fire Island and the Hamptons.
Even as New York recovered relatively quickly from the pandemic, Chicago has been struggling with international tourism.
Anyone who has been around town for a while can remember the days when there were far more foreign languages being spoken on Michigan Avenue. The challenges are self-evident but we’ll tick them off: not enough major new attractions with global heft (like the lost Lucas Museum of Narrative Art); a lack of attention to the retail problems on the Magnificent Mile; lousy sports teams that haven’t spawned another Michael Jordan; transit and other transportation challenges; “teen takeovers” unnerving and sometimes harming tourists; the nagging international perception of Chicago equaling “bang, bang”; the loss of some key international flights (albeit with the arrival of others); insufficient ignition of the city’s massive architectural, historical, cultural and other assets; pandemic hangovers when it comes to the city’s famed late-night scene, especially in the Loop; too much distance from international media; too much politically correct spending of tourism money in the “right” aldermanic wards instead of focusing it on where international visitors really want to go…