Chicago Tribune reports that Rep. Mark Kirk is seeking a $5.5 mil improvement to make ORD a gateway to Asian business:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/busine...ohare-asia-20111118,0,547169.story

Adding a few languages on the signage is gonna cost $5.5mil?

Quoting RamblinMan (Reply 1): Adding a few languages on the signage is gonna cost $5.5mil?

You clearly are not from chicago. To get the contract to do this signage requires either being a relative of a city official or donating heavily towards said officials. Both of which command a good premium.

I doubt that having Asian language signage would help attract Asian tourists. Most Asians that can afford to fly to the USA can speak English. Last year, UA could not even be bothered to have Mandarin speaking staff to handle ORD-PEK/PVG flights I suspect because the high value passengers already speak English. Only tourists and Kettles cannot speak English and there is little reason to cater to them.

Quoting RamblinMan (Reply 1): Adding a few languages on the signage is gonna cost $5.5mil?

Yes it could. The funds would be privately collected so there are costs there right off the top. Translating, transcreating and testing several languages is not cheap and installing durable industrial signage throughout a large airport at ORD could easily cost that much, especially if some signs would need to be replaced with the additional languages added.