Chicago: What makes a world-class destination?

On Thursday 8 September our Chief Executive Ros Morgan welcomed Deputy Mayor of Chicago for Neighborhood and Economic Development, Samir Mayekar as the third guest in our online event series “What makes a world-class destination?”

The interview centered around how Chicago has bounced back from the impact of the pandemic, how they are encouraging people back to the city centre and what they’re doing to accommodate the recent increase in tourism.

Our top five takeaways are:

Chicago is the economic anchor of the state of Illinois
Convention Centre’s will be key to driving domestic tourism
Chicago is committed to running all of its municipal operations with renewable energy
A city should encourage its inhabitants to adopt multi-modalities of transit for a greener future
To re-invest in streetscapes will allow more businesses to expand, creating more jobs and opportunities for future generations
Samir’ area of focus is to promote inclusive economic growth and to ensure Chicago has a thriving downtown in their central business district. He is particularly interested in bringing economic growth to parts of Chicago which have not been granted investment for generations.

In response to the climate crisis, Chicago has pledged to reduce its carbon emissions by 60% by 2040. Chicago was the first US city to publish an economic recovery plan post-pandemic including plans for transport distribution, life sciences and the food and beverage industry. During the pandemic, the city launched the highest number of bike lanes to encourage its inhabitants to move away from vehicle use.

To end the interview Samir revealed his definition of a world-class destination: Your experience from arrival to departure, the totality of that experience makes it world class.

To watch the webinar in full, click here.

To stay up to date with our future events, please visit our events page here.