CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Hotel occupancy in downtown Chicago exceeded pre-pandemic levels for the month of March, according to the latest report from a group that has been monitoring the city’s economic recovery.
In addition to Hotels now beating out 2019 numbers, Foot traffic led by cultural events, including Chicago Theatre Week, continues surpassing previous recovery numbers, now at 120 percent of 2021’s first quarter.
"In the final week of March, we actually exceeded hotel occupancy from 2019 by seven percent," Chicago Loop Alliance Spokesperson Kiana DiStasi tells WBBM.
Visitors are contributing significantly to the overall recovery, according to DiStasi.
"Those folks coming in to enjoy arts and culture in the Loop contributed over $200 million to the local economy in terms of their economic impact."
She also mentioned that Chicago is now leading the nation in office occupancy recovery; that is outside of Texas where the pandemic was handled a little differently.
Even so, Chicago falling just about a half a percentage point behind Dallas. Greater still, that data from Kastle Systems which shows an average just over 50 percent of workers returning to the office daily, could look a little different if the data was to show how many individuals are actually in the office each week.
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