Crain’s New York Business: Holidays and international visitors could speed tourism’s recovery
By CARA EISENPRESS
October 29, 2021 7:45 AM
The pieces are finally in place for the city’s long-awaited tourism comeback to take shape, leaders in the sector said at the Crain’s New York Now Summit on tourism on Thursday.
Soon-to-open international borders, a clear local vaccine policy and a core product—New York City—that has held onto its shine throughout a difficult time were central to their increasingly bright outlook.
“This city has a broad appeal like no place else on the planet,” said Fred Dixon, CEO of NYC & Company, the city’s marketing agency. “You think people want to go to beaches and mountains. That’s not true for a huge portion of the population—they crave the interaction, the arts and culture and Broadway.”
The late summer and fall did bring important reopening moments reinforcing that idea: Broadway opened 26 shows. Business conferences went off without a hitch. The U.S. Open and United Nations General Assembly filled hotels temporarily. President Joe Biden announced that visitors from abroad who had been vaccinated against Covid-19 could come back to the U.S. on Nov. 8—now next week.
Certain indicators failed to move, however. Volume at airports in the New York City region was 38% below pre-pandemic levels in August, an improvement from 42% down in July. Demand for New York City hotels held steady at 2.1 million rooms in August and closer to 2.2 million in September, well above pandemic lows of 850,000 in April 2020, but below pre-pandemic demand of 2.7 to 2.8 million rooms monthly.
Dixon said he was hearing from international contacts that interest in visiting New York City was high—perhaps bolstered by a $6 million ad buy abroad.
Charlotte St. Martin, the president of the Broadway League, said she would know if international visitors had resumed their typically higher-than-average spend on theater tickets.
For now, she said what she had noticed among visitors was a feeling of support for the city from domestic visitors. “People think it’s their patriotic duty to come back, eat, stay and go to Broadway,” she said.
That sentiment had been lacking up until now, as fears about tourists bringing or contracting Covid-19 on a visit dominated the conversation. That prevented tourism from rebounding as quickly as after the last major disaster—September 11th.
But with leaders putting faith in vaccinations and watching as cases and hospitalizations fell, the tide has changed to welcome tourists rather than fear them.
“That’s the language right now—feeling safe,” said Melba Wilson, owner of Melba’s Restaurant and president of the NYC Hospitality Alliance.
New York City had shown over the last months that its residents took Covid-19 rules like masking and showing their vaccine passes seriously. “You see that people adhere to the protocols,” said Vijay Dandapani, president & CEO of the Hotel Association of New York City.
But most important of all, the leaders emphasized that the city has retained the huge list of reasons that visitors come here: for family and friends, for business, for events, to shop, for Broadway and to eat and drink.
As the holidays approach, they said, they expected to see the numbers of visitors rise.
“We expect a surge in business,” said Wilson. “It’s about the millions of people who want to come here. When tourists come to New York, it puts money in our pockets and our staffs’ pockets.”
In spite of the optimism, the panelists warned that there could still be hiccups. Out of their control was the worry about rising virus rates or new variants. And, while the city waits for its full comeback, they advised policymakers to think seriously about bolstering tourism infrastructure, paying attention to the city’s cleanliness and public safety and thinking about making sure that public transit was in good shape. That includes an efficient method to get back and forth from the airport, said Dandapani.
“We need a one-seat ride to the airport,” he said. “Go to any other big city – London, Paris—they all have one-seat rides. We don’t.”