Illinois had record-setting 114 million visitors last year

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) - Illinois saw a record-number of visitors last year.

Gov. Bruce Rauner's office says in a news release that nearly 114 million people visited the state. That breaks the previous record set in 2016 by more than a million visitors.

It also means more money for the state economy. The governor's office says the U.S. Travel Association determined that visitors spent $39.5 billion dollars in the state last year - $1.1 billion more than they spent in 2016.

As a result of that growth in both the number of tourists and the amount of money they spent, the tourism industry has been able to add thousands of jobs. The news release says the number of jobs the tourism industry supports in the state rose by nearly 19,000 to 335,400. Since 2015.