A Chicago welcome

CHICAGO -- First it was a plan to turn Chicagoans into tourists in their own city. Now in yet another effort to attract more visitors -- and their wallets -- the city is asking residents to show out-of-towners around.

On Friday, the city's tourism department kicked off "Chicago Greeter," a free service for visitors who want to see the city through the eyes of people who live in it.

These are people who know you can't see everything from atop the Sears Tower, there's more to do than get the cook at the Billy Goat Tavern to say, "No fries, cheeps," for the millionth time and the Cubs are a pitcher away from making the playoffs.

Similar to New York's Big Apple Greeter and Australia's Melbourne Greeters, "Chicago Greeter" is previewing this month and then will start again in the spring, said Dorothy Coyle, the director of the city tourism office.

"I've heard of visitors here two or three days who don't get more than two blocks from their hotel," she said. "This is a way to get them to visit places they might otherwise not see."

"I want to give them more of a down-home tour," said Morene Dunn, one of about 75 volunteer greeters.

One thing she promised is that the two New Yorkers she had in tow would go home with a story about how they put their hands inside the impressions of Michael Jordan's hands at a sporting goods store.

"Stuff they might not read about," she said.

Emilio Fonseca, a student from Spain, signed up with the idea he wanted to see where artists hang out. So Normandie Hand was taking him to the Bucktown and Wicker Park neighborhoods to visit small art galleries and "some of the edgier, trendier shops."

American and United airlines will help market the program and provide some of the greeters to make travel less "scary," an United spokeswoman said.