Will County, Ill., which includes the Route 66 town of Joliet as the county seat, saw a 9.4 percent increase in tourism spending, reports the Bolingbrook Sun. And the Mother Road gets a lot of the credit:
Benson attributed the area’s rising numbers to some staple attractions — the city’s two casinos and Chicagoland Speedway — and something new, the Route 66 Visitors Bureau. […]
Route 66, in particular, is gaining in popularity now that there is an official starting point to reconnect with the road, he said. The site, which was created through a state grant and opened last year, has attracted “a ton” of international visitors, Benson said.
“We’ve had groups of Germans and a lot of Ukrainians visit,” he said. “It’s amazing. They call and ask about Route 66, and they ask how to (tour) it.”
And the anecdotal evidence that the number of foreign travelers is up on Route 66 is also supported by the numbers:
Domestic travel expenditures were $28.9 billion, a 5.2 percent increase, compared to $1.9 billion from international expenditures a 15.6 percent increase. […]
• Illinois is tied for sixth among the most popular states for overseas travelers, hosting 1,171,000 overseas visitors, an 8 percent increase over the previous year.