McCormick Place Tourism Revenue Reaches New High as Convention Business Rebounds

Convention and tourism revenue tied to McCormick Place reached a new high last year, according to city tourism officials, driven largely by a rebound in trade show and group travel business that had lagged well behind leisure travel recovery in the years immediately following the pandemic.

The convention center, one of the largest in the country, has increasingly positioned itself as a competitive option for major national trade shows, a pitch that city tourism officials say has become more persuasive as the center has invested in modernized meeting space and improved transportation links to downtown hotels.

"Meeting planners choose a host city based on hotel capacity, transportation, and venue quality, and Chicago has quietly kept improving all three of those over the past several years," said a city tourism official. "That combination has become a real selling point for us as trade shows have come back."

Hotel occupancy data for the period around major convention weeks showed particularly strong growth compared with non-convention periods, underscoring how heavily downtown hospitality revenue depends on McCormick Place's event calendar. City officials credited targeted marketing to national trade association and corporate meeting planners for the rebound, along with continued investment in the convention center's facilities.

Chicago has continued investing in infrastructure supporting the convention center, including expanded transit service connecting McCormick Place to downtown hotels. City economic development officials said they expect tourism revenue to continue growing as additional hotel and event space capacity comes online near the center over the next several years.