Chicago needs to be less murder-y to keep visitors coming
Skift Take
Of course Choose Chicago has to say it, but the argument that Chicago is safe in the places tourists want to go is an empty one when everyone knows the crime sprees are happening only blocks away.
"We hope this sunsets quickly because all the good work we're doing regionally, nationally and internationally, if this is not contained in a reasonable period of time, it will have an impact," Don Welsh, president and chief executive of Choose Chicago, said in a morning meeting withthe Chicago Tribune's editorial board.
News reports of several unprovoked attacks by youths in the Michigan Avenue corridor and of the surge in homicides in some impoverished Chicago neighborhoods are triggering concerned calls to Choose Chicago, the newly restructured not-for-profit agency that combines the city's convention bureau and its office of tourism and culture. The issue has gained national attention in The New York Times and other media.
"There are inquiries that are coming in
