Tourism industry staging a comeback after two-year pandemic hiatus

CHICAGO - People are getting set on a fantastic voyage — once again.

The travel industry says tourism is back and Chicago is raking in the dough.

Two titans of the travel industry, the president and CEO of Hyatt and CEO of American Airlines, say after a two-year pandemic they are seeing unprecedented demand.

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Hyatt CEO Mark Hoplamazian says bookings are up 10-percent for Cancun, and up 20-percent for Punta Cana compared to where things were in 2019.

He added that bookings for holiday weekends like Memorial Day and Labor Day are up, and that people are starting to book much further in advance.

"Second quarter is mapping out to be better than the first quarter. We're talking about significant bookings, up 30 percent or more vs. 2019 levels for our resort destinations in the second quarter,"

American Airline's CEO says his company lost $20 billion during the pandemic. But now, airline capacity cannot keep up with demand.