April 26--Chicago surpassed the 50 million mark for domestic visitors annually for the first time in 2015, with a rise of nearly 5 percent over the prior year, tourism officials said.
Choose Chicago, the city's convention and tourism bureau, said U.S. visitors to Chicago reached a record 50.97 million last year. The total number of visitors, including international, is expected to exceed a record 52 million.
Less clear is whether the number of foreign visitors will also be up over 2014. International visits reached 1.55 million in 2014.
The final numbers for international visitors in 2015 won't be out until later, said a spokesman for the city of Chicago.
Among domestic visitors to Chicago in 2015, 39.3 million were leisure visitors, with the rest business visitors.
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has a goal of attracting 55 million visitors annually by 2020.
During the recession, annual visitor levels to the city of Chicago had dropped to 39 million.
byerak@tribpub.com
