For many of us, the summer is vacation time. All across Illinois, kids are off school, out of office responses have been turned on, and wanderlust is setting in. Here at IllinoisBet.com, we’re in a vacation state of mind, too, when we’re not reviewing Illinois sportsbook apps.
So we wondered: Which cities do Illinois residents love visiting the most?
To find out, we looked at the state’s search engine history in a 12-month span from June 25, 2022, to June 25, 2023, to see what cities most often followed the prompt “Flights to…” Not including any cities within Illinois, we ranked the top travel destinations according to Google Trends.
Based on our analysis, these are Illinois’ three favorite cities.
Viva Las Vegas! That’s right, Sin City is Illinois’ favorite city to visit.
In fact, it’s one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world — attracting 38 million visitors in 2022. Annually, Vegas welcomes 50 times its population, drawing swaths of tourists to its casinos, stage shows and unrivalled nightlife.
Many of the city’s main attractions can be found along the 4.2-mile stretch known as the Las Vegas strip, which is basically a gigantic theme park for adults. The strip also boasts over half of the world’s largest hotels — including The Venetian, The MGM Grand, and Caesars Palace.
In recent years, Las Vegas has drawn in even more visitors thanks to its quest to become a major center for professional sports franchises. The new Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights set up shop in 2017 after joining the NHL via an expansion process. Those using the BetMGM Bonus Code Illinois can get +1200 futures odds for the Golden Knights to repeat as champions in the 2023-24 season.
In 2020, the Raiders moved from Oakland to Las Vegas, occupying the brand new Allegiant Stadium (which hosts the Super Bowl in 2024). Nevada’s most populated city also has a team in the WNBA, the Las Vegas Aces, who won the league championship in 2022.
The latest project in Las Vegas is to land the Oakland Athletics MLB franchise. A new baseball stadium, just off the Vegas strip, is set to break ground in 2024 — though it would not open for another four years.
As for the Raiders, Caesars Sportsbook Illinois offers them at +4500 to win a Super Bowl and bring a third pro sports title to the desert in a little over a year.
Miami ranks as Illinois residents’ second-favorite city to visit. Celebrated for its beaches, shopping, and nightlife, Miami hosted 26.5 million tourists last year. In terms of international travel, it’s the second most visited city in America behind New York.
For its part, Miami is also a major hub for professional sports, with teams in all America’s big five professional leagues. Of course, it’s likely that even more people will flock to Miami with news that the world-renowned soccer star Lionel Messi will be joining Inter Miami FC later this season. And the Marlins are making a surprising run as National League playoff contenders; their Illinois sports betting odds to win the World Series vary from +3000 to +5000.
Finally, Illinois’ third favorite city to visit is the Theme Park Capital of the World — Orlando. Home to five of the ten largest theme parks in the world, including Disney World and Universal Studios Florida, tourism is a major driver of central Florida. Orlando welcomes over 70 million visitors a year, creating $67 billion in economic impact, and accounting for nearly one-third of the area’s workforce.
No matter what your destination this summer, IllinoisBet.com will be here with the latest gambling and sports betting news from the home front. In addition to continuing sports coverage, we also offer the best Illinois sportsbook promos available.
Author
Jeff Parker is an entertainment writer for IllinoisBet.com. A writer for film, television and the internet, Jeff is a life long movie buff, with an actual Masters Degree in Popular Culture. He lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he works full time as documentary filmmaker and producer.
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