Jan. 5 at 12:06 p.m.
Filed under:
Conventions,
Tourism,
Updated
By Kathy Bergen
A southwest view from of Navy Pier from the Ferris Wheel, Nov. 9, 2010. (Chris Walker/Chicago Tribune)
Navy Pier, the lakefront entertainment complex that has been joined at the hip with McCormick Place, will be leased to a newly formed not-for-profit corporation that will govern and manage the tourist attraction, the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority announced this morning.
Sara Nava Garvey will serve as transitional chair of the new board. She also serves on the board of the authority, the state-city agency known as McPier that now owns and operates the pier and the convention center. Get the full story »
Jan. 4 at 10:16 a.m.
Filed under:
Conventions,
Tourism
By Kathy Bergen
Donald P. Welsh at a press conference in Indianapolis, July 12, 2010. (Matt Detrich/The Star)
The Chicago Convention & Tourism Bureau will pay its new top executive $390,000 a year, with the potential to earn up to $78,000 more if growth objectives are met, the bureau’s chairman said Tuesday morning.
The package, which could total $468,000, will go to Indianapolis tourism executive Donald P. Welsh, whose hiring as the bureau’s new president and CEO was announced Monday evening. Salary information was not available at that time. He will step into the post in early February.
The salary package represents a substantial hike over the compensation paid to the previous top executive, Tim Roby, who resigned last month. In the fiscal year ended June 30, 2010, he received a salary and bonus package of $362,652, of which $260,540 was base salary, bureau officials said. The remainder was incentive bonus and pay for unused vacation time. Get the full story »
By Kathy Bergen
The Chicago Convention & Tourism Bureau’s board today hired Indianapolis tourism executive Donald P. Welsh as its new president and chief executive officer.
Welsh was hired away from the Indianapolis Convention & Visitors Assn., where he was chief executive.
His hiring comes shortly after the resignation of Tim Roby, a hospitality industry sales and marketing executive who took the top executive post at the bureau in 2006. Get the full story »
From Globe St. | Langham Hotels and Resorts has partnered with Oxford Capital Group LLC to open a luxury hotel in 330 N. Wabash, the Mies van der Rohe-designed riverfront building that previously housed IBM’s Midwest headquarters. The new Langham Chicago Hotel, expected to open in 2012, will occupy floors two through 13 of the 52-story building. Get the full story>>
By Dow Jones Newswires
Orbitz Worldwide Inc. named the former financial chief of Crocs Inc. to the same position at the online-travel company. Russ Hammer, who led the restructuring efforts at shoe maker Crocs, also held a variety of senior executive positions at Motorola Inc.. He replaces Marsha Williams, whose retirement was announced in June. Get the full story »
Dec. 16, 2010 at 7:40 a.m.
Filed under:
Autos,
Environment,
Green,
Tourism,
Travel
By Associated Press
A visualization of a proposed electric car station in Paris. (AP)
After its successful bike-sharing program, Paris is moving into higher gear, preparing to lend out 3,000 electric cars across the City of Light to fight air pollution.
City officials on Thursday chose a bid by French billionaire entrepreneur Vincent Bollore to run Autolib’, a new automobile-sharing program modeled on Paris’ successful, three-year-old bicycle-sharing program, Velib’. Get the full story »
Dec. 16, 2010 at 6:36 a.m.
Filed under:
Hotels,
Tourism,
Travel
By Dow Jones Newswires-Wall Street Journal
Storied New York hotelier Ian Schrager says he is about to launch his next “fresh start,” kicking it off with an update of Chicago’s Ambassador East hotel.
The 64-year-old founder of the hip Morgans Hotel Group Co. and a co-owner of the former Studio 54 disco in Manhattan, plans to start two trendy hotel chains. One will cater to the luxury lifestyle and the other will be a more affordable take on hip, large-scale urban hotels. Get the full story »
By Kathy Bergen
McCormick Place officials are abandoning a two-year effort to acquire a neighboring block for potential hotel development, officials said today.
The Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority will drop legal proceedings aimed at acquiring several adjoining parcels through condemnation proceedings, said Renee Benjamin, the authority’s general counsel. Get the full story »
Dec. 14, 2010 at 6:03 a.m.
Filed under:
Tourism,
Travel
By Associated Press
A post-bicentennial drop in tourism numbers reduced attendance by more than a third at some Lincoln sites in Illinois this year.Hotel stays also fell.
But tourism and historic-site managers say the fall-off from the 200th anniversary celebration of Abraham Lincoln’s birth in 2009 was anticipated. They remain encouraged that numbers in most cases were ahead of 2008 Get the full story »
Dec. 13, 2010 at 3:26 p.m.
Filed under:
Airlines,
Tourism,
Travel
By Julie Johnsson
The sky appears to be the limit when it comes to the money airlines make by charging passengers to check luggage.
The 20 largest U.S. carriers collected $906.4 million in baggage-related revenue in the third quarter, a 23 percent jump from 2009 results, according to data released Monday by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Get the full story »
Dec. 3, 2010 at 11:40 a.m.
Filed under:
Autos,
Tourism,
Travel
By Associated Press
An RV makes its way over the Golden Gate Bridge the day before Thanksgiving. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)
American families are ready to hitch up their trailers and tow the RV industry out of its worst stretch in nearly two decades.
The industry was driven into the ditch last year by the recession. Sales plunged, plants closed and thousands of jobs were cut as orders for recreational vehicles dropped to their worse level since 1991.
Now, RV makers such as Winnebago are starting to turn profits and have begun to hire. And dealers are ordering more RVs for their showrooms. Get the full story »
Dec. 1, 2010 at 9:34 a.m.
Filed under:
Conventions,
Tourism
By Kathy Bergen
Tim Roby, president and CEO of the Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau, speaks during a tourism rally at Navy Pier on May 12, 2009. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune)
Tim Roby, the president and chief executive officer of the Chicago Convention & Tourism bureau, will resign effective Dec. 22.
His exit comes at a time of transition for the government-subsidized non-profit, which acts as the sales arm for the McCormick Place convention center. A state-mandated overhaul of convention center operations required a restructuring of the bureau’s board, and the resulting new board took office recently. It includes some of the heaviest hitters in the city’s business community. Get the full story »
Nov. 19, 2010 at 3:23 p.m.
Filed under:
Associations/Clubs,
Conventions,
Energy,
Tourism,
Travel
By Wailin Wong
Chicago has nabbed a new piece of convention business, booking a 2013 global solar energy conference that is expected to draw more than 27,000 attendees to the city. Get the full story »
Nov. 15, 2010 at 3:48 p.m.
Filed under:
Conventions,
Tourism,
Travel,
Updated
By Kathy Bergen
While the National Restaurant Association announced Monday that its high-profile trade show will stay put in Chicago through 2016, the city is not quite on terra firma yet.
The association will keep a close eye on whether a new state law aimed at cutting exhibitor costs at McCormick Place is fully implemented — a progression that could be derailed if two trade unions prevail in their challenge of the law in federal court.
“If something changes and the legislation is not able to be enacted the way it was designed and exhibitor rights go away, it becomes more difficult to explain why we would be in Chicago,” Mary Pat Heftman, executive vice president/convention for the association, said after a press conference announcing the new pact. Get the full story »
Nov. 12, 2010 at 1:17 p.m.
Filed under:
Internet,
Tourism,
Travel
By Wailin Wong
Orbitz Worldwide Inc. has launched free mobile applications for the iPhone and Android platforms that allow users to book hotels, flights and rental cars.
In addition, the Chicago-based online travel company has updated its mobile Web site, which has been live since July but whose debut went unannounced. Get the full story »
