Chicago is open and ready to welcome visitors and events back to our amazing city. Choose Chicago continues to support partners during this time with the latest industry information, financial support resources, and updates on the city’s reopening plan. If you have any questions, please contact our team at partnership@choosechicago.com.
Resources for our partners
Reopening Chicago
- Chicago is open and ready to welcome visitors back to our amazing city. We are currently in Phase Five of the city’s phased approach to reopening. This step allows for a full reopening across industries, with no capacity limits.
- Learn more about opening responsibly with local health and safety guidelines for different industries.
- Governor JB Pritzker also shared a five-phase plan, Restore Illinois, with benchmarks and guidelines for reopening the state while protecting public health.
Industry resources
- Miles Partnership has compiled insights, webinars, and recommendations for tourism organizations.
- Forbes Travel is offering complimentary training webinars and videos for the hospitality industry.
- Destinations International is sharing webinars and community resources.
- U.S. Travel Association has the latest travel data and industry research.
- Connect Travel is hosting virtual roundtables about the state of the travel industry.
Digital presence
If your business is affected by COVID-19, update your Google My Business profile to provide the most accurate information to your customers. Learn the steps on how to adjust business hours to reflect temporary closure. Additional items to be mindful of:
- Update information about temporary closure in the business description.
- Create a post on the Business Profile to alert customers about the current situation.
- Use this as an ongoing tool to provide helpful information.
You might also want to consider updating your Tripadvisor listing. Learn more.
Social media
During this time, it’s crucial to maintain an active social media presence. There are numerous innovative ways to engage with a home-bound audience to reflect the unique personality of your business. Consider posting the following:
- Lighthearted content that inspires, entertains, or educates. Whether it’s letting the animals loose around the museum, performing an opera from your living room, or holding a virtual cooking class, there are so many ways to engage audiences from the comfort of their home (and yours!).
- Valuable digital offerings, like virtual tours, live-streamed tutorials, educational videos, and more.
- Behind-the-scenes content that lets your audience get to know the people behind the businesses they love.
- Community goodwill initiatives, such as fundraisers for those in need.
- Ask your audience what they love about your business so you can gather insight to better serve your loyal fans — and gain new ones.
- Up-to-the-minute news. Now, more than ever, people are looking to social media to get the latest updates on how a business’s operations may have changed during this time.
Don’t forget to tag us @choosechicago if you have content to share with us so we can amplify your reach!
- Social sharing opportunities:
- Twitter: You can @mention (@choosechicago) in the text of the tweet or send the tweet via direct message once posted.
- Facebook: Send to @choosechicago using the Facebook Messenger direct message feature.
- Instagram Story: tag @choosechicago by either including in the copy or using the @mention sticker or send your Instagram Story to @choosechicago using the “Send to…” option once you’ve posted.
- You can also email links to your social content to socialmedia@choosechicago.com.
Health & safety resources
- The City of Chicago shares local updates, travel alerts and tips to help minimize risk.
- The State of Illinois shares daily state-wide updates and advice.
- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) features the latest global updates, health and travel information and guidance for large gatherings.
- The World Health Organization offers advice, reports and updates on the outbreak.
