Toronto and Chicago have some important things in common. Both are cosmopolitan North American cities located on the shores of a Great Lake – Lake Michigan in Chicago’s case, Lake Ontario for Toronto.
They’re also huge hockey cities, so it was appropriate for tourism promoter Choose Chicago to select Scotiabank Arena as the venue to host travel trade members and media during a visit to Canada’s largest city. A group of 40 filled a box at the arena to watch NHL Original Six members Chicago Black Hawks play the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The Scotiabank Arena in Toronto was the venue for a Choose Chicago event. (Photo Credit: Bruce Parkinson)
The Leafs won on this night, but we won’t gloat, because, well, Chicago has won three Stanley Cups since 2010, while long-suffering Toronto hasn’t taken home the trophy since 1967.
In terms of tourism, Chicago has been winning for a while now. For the eighth year in a row, readers of Conde Nast Traveler have voted The Windy City ‘The Best Big City In The U.S.’
Michelle Gonzalez, VP, Media Relations for Choose Chicago, speaks to Canadian travel trade members. (Photo Credit: Bruce Parkinson)
Next year, Chicago will host thousands of travel professionals at IPW, America’s biggest inbound travel show. It’s an event with a bright spotlight that is sure to drive more visitors to Illinois in future years.
“We can’t wait to host IPW in June,” said Lisa Nucci, Chief Marketing Officer for Choose Chicago. “Chicago is so vibrant in summer and we want to show it off.”
Among other things, Chicago is famous for sky-scraping architecture, a diverse cuisine and cultural scene, museums of treasures like the Art Institute of Chicago, and a well-utilized waterfront that puts Toronto’s condo curtain to shame. For music lovers, it’s also the place where the acoustic blues of the Mississippi Delta evolved into electric excitement.
Chicagoans and their visitors have over 580 parks and 8,300 acres of green spaces at their disposal. With beaches, ice rinks and bike paths, there’s no shortage of outdoor recreation.
Lisa Nucci, Chief Marketing Officer for Choose Chicago, with TravelPulse Canada’s Bruce Parkinson. (Photo Credit: Bruce Parkinson)
“This is a city that continues to reinvent and evolve,” said Nucci. “We’re never done, and we’re never outdone.”
Nucci says visitors are encouraged “to see how the people live” in the 77 neighbourhoods that make up the city. Like Pilsen, a lower east side neighbourhood with a strong Mexican flavour, or Bronzeville, an early-20th-century African-American business and cultural hub, where the aromas of soul food and BBQ fill the air.
A Chicago-born ‘south-sider,’ Nucci says new and upcoming attractions including the Salt Shed, an indoor/outdoor music venue in the riverfront former Morton’s Salt Factory (now open), and the delayed but much anticipated Barack Obama Presidential Center, set to open in Jackson Park in 2026.
“There are so many things to do in Chicago and we’re excited to share them with our friends in Canada and around the world,” Nucci added.