CHICAGO (WGN) — Chicago’s image has taken a hit after months of negative headlines and amped up rhetoric.
So, Chicago tourism officials are trying something new to take control of the city’s story.
Kristen Reynolds is the president and CEO of Choose Chicago, the city’s official tourism office.
“Chicago, we’ve had a challenging national narrative for a while,” she said. “In the last couple of months, it really has escalated with narratives coming out about federal deployment, what’s happening here, ICE obviously, and it became amplified across not only the nation, but really the globe.”
Tourism is one of Chicago’s key drivers of economic growth drawing 55 million visitors to the city, generating about $20 billion in economic impact – hotels, restaurants, events, attractions, retail, and transportation.
Choose Chicago has developed a new initiative designed to allow Chicagoans themselves take control of the narrative.
“We keep defending Chicago, and we wanted to stop defending Chicago. We wanted to be proactive and start telling people who Chicago really is,” Reynolds said.
The “All for the Love of Chicago” social media campaign encourages people to make their own videos – in their own words – why they love the city.
So far the campaign has generated more than a million views.
“It’s a place where there’s art and culture and theatre and where we value diversity,” Reynolds said. “We amplified the word love because right now, in this time, there’s so much negativity out there in the world. We want Chicago to be a beacon of love. Chicagoans have decided to stand up and take control of our own voice.”
Choose Chicago says the negative national news has created confusion and raised questions among tourists – but so far the city hasn’t seen a dip in visitors comparable to New York and Las Vegas. Both of those cities saw double digit decreases in tourism over the summer.
Want more insights? Join Working Title - our career elevating newsletter and get the future of work delivered weekly.
