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Visit Milwaukee hopes to lure tourists from the Windy City to the Cream City

Visit Milwaukee at Union Station
Posted at 2:27 PM, Sep 08, 2021
and last updated 2021-09-08 19:30:11-04

CHICAGO — Brew City representatives from Visit Milwaukee took the Amtrak Hiawatha line to Chicago on Wednesday hoping to bring more visitors to Milwaukee.

According to Visit Milwaukee, direct visitor spending in the city dropped 37% last year during the pandemic. With Illinois residents being the second largest tourist group to the Milwaukee area, the crew at Visit Milwaukee thought it would be a good time to remind Chicagoans about all that Milwaukee has to offer.

"Whether it's Summerfest which is going on right now, or walking down Wisconsin Avenue and enjoying all the sculptures or one of our many museums... it's only a 90-minute trip to enjoy all the great things of Milwaukee," said Visit Milwaukee visit experience manager Tony Snell.

And the Visit Milwaukee team wants to highlight just how easy the trip is when you go by Amtrak train.

"There's a lot of fun up there and it's a lot easier to get there than people might think, especially if they take Amtrak trains that go from right here in downtown Chicago to downtown Milwaukee," said Amtrak Representative Marc Magliari.

While taking the train from Milwaukee's Intermodal Station to Chicago's Union station, the Visit Milwaukee representatives played Milwaukee Trivia with passengers and even gave away a few Summerfest tickets.

Once in Chicago, Visit Milwaukee set up two booths inside Union Station. There they passed out Milwaukee brochures to travelers, gave away more Milwaukee-themed prizes, and gave people the chance to win a Milwaukee experience grand prize (two Amtrak tickets, an overnight stay at the Cambria Hotel, two general admission Summerfest tickets and a Milwaukee tote bag).

Chicago resident Beverley Walker stopped by one of the Visit Milwaukee booths at Union Station and said she's already starting to plan her next trip up to Milwaukee.

"Let's go up to Milwaukee for the weekend and do a beer tour and visit cousins and maybe go to Potawatomi," Walker said about her ideal Milwaukee weekend.

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