Crain’s New York Business: Council bills aim to salvage the wreckage of city’s multibillion-dollar tourism industry
By Gwen Evertt
September 24, 2020
A package of bills in city council is taking aim at New York’s pandemic-racked multi-billion dollar tourism industry.
One proposed bill would create a corollary to Open Restaurants, the program that allowed restaurants to host diners on sidewalks and in streets, for theaters and performance venues. Another would create a temporary, centralized agency under the auspices of the Mayor’s Office for members of the tourism industry to communicate with city bureaucrats.
“Tourism is the third largest generator of income for the city, and because of COVID there is no tourism, basically,” said Queens Councilman Paul Vallone, who sponsored of legislation. “There’s this balance between health, COVID concerns, and marketing and tourism, that we have to find a way to make. Otherwise the city’s going to be in some serious economic trouble,” he said.
Billions of dollars are at stake. The $71 billion tourism industry generated $4.9 billion in tax revenue for New York City last year, according to NYC & Company. When New York shut down to stem the spread of Covid-19, it brought the industry to its knees. Now, even as the rest of the city is embarking on reopening, tourism is behind. That’s in part because the public health crisis is worsening in other parts of the country even as it improves in New York . Tourism depends on travel, but visitors from states where the virus is still surging are subject to a 14-day quarantine rule when they enter New York state. With the Covid-19 crisis mounting nationally, the majority of states in the U.S. are subject to that rule.
It all means iconic institutions are flashing signs of distress: Broadway, Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall are all set to remain dark at least through the end of the year and Carnegie Hall has dipped into its endowment. Most recently, The Metropolitan Opera announced it would remain closed for an entire year.
The pair of bills that would give venues a way to use public spaces like parks and streets to host performances would allow revenue-starved theaters to generate some income said Jimmy Van Bramer, the Queens councilman who sponsors the bills.
“The Met Opera is a large cultural institution, and it having to go dark for over a year is not only a big, devastating blow to the institution and opera lovers, to Lincoln center, to the upper west side, but for all of New York, because so many people come in to see world class performers and performances,” said Van Bramer, adding, “And that’s just one of literally thousands of venues, most of which are incredibly small across the city, that have just gone silent and dark since COVID.”
Reviving cultural institutions is a financial imperative because the 30% of tourists who come to New York City for Broadway end up spending thousands on meals, hotel stays and souvenirs, he said.
Meanwhile Vallone’s bill would aide the tourism industry by giving firms a liaison to the administration and thereby easing access to departments across the city, the councilman told Crain’s.
Testimony on the package will begin at 10 a.m. Thursday. The Times Square Alliance, Hotel Association of New York City, and NYC & Company are all scheduled to testify. Watch live here.
“We can’t avoid the severity of the crisis anymore” said Vallone, adding, “it’s time to have that conversation.”