2003 Illinois Tourism FactSheets

Here are some facts about the state’s tourism industry in 2003:

The Illinois travel and tourism industry, in 2003, contributed nearly $23 billion to the Illinois economy.   

Travelers spent almost $63 million dollars every day in Illinois businesses.  

The Illinois travel and tourism industry employed 298,670 persons in Illinois, who earned almost $7.7 billion. 

On average, every $76,883 spent in Illinois by travelers generated one job. 

  Traveler spending generated over $1.1 billion in tax revenues for the state treasury and over $553 million for local governments.  Without these travel-generated tax revenues, the tax burden of a typical family of four would need to increase by approximately $543 annually. 

To fully communicate the industry’s true benefit to Illinois, we also need to look at tourism’s qualitative attributes such as improving Illinoisans’ quality of life by expanding residents’ amenity base and accelerating all forms of economic development. 

In 2003, Illinois welcomed 84.9 million domestic visitors, 25.2 million for business and 59.7 million for leisure purposes.    

In 2003, Illinois hosted 829,000 overseas visitors, tied as the 6th most popular U.S. state for overseas visitors.  Chicago remained the 9th most popular U.S. city for overseas visitors. 

The top five states for providing visitors to Illinois were:  Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Michigan and Wisconsin.  The top markets for international visitors to Illinois were Canada, United Kingdom, Mexico, Japan and Germany. 

On average, visitors to Illinois spent $115 per person per day.  

The primary activities of leisure travelers to Illinois included dining, shopping, sightseeing, entertainment, visiting a museum/art exhibit and nightlife. 

The average age of Illinois visitors was 42, the majority were married, and had an annual household income of $72,000.

Hotel-motel tax revenues for CY 2003 were $152,292,476.

Consumer inquiries for 2003 were over 1.5 million.