Be prepared for a surge in luxury travel. As the holiday weekend proved, people are eager to get back out there and they’re willing to spend more to feel safe and well cared for.

Tax break for NYC hoteliers: Much-needed relief for New York City’s hotel industry materialized on Wednesday when Mayor Bill de Blasio signed an Executive Order eliminating the 5.875% hotel room occupancy tax rate for three months, starting June 1 through the end of August.

As the city is awakening from the long pandemic, some of the most iconic places are now open for business.

With COVID-19 infection rates significantly diminished and most of its state’s pandemic-related restrictions now lifted, New York City is eager to jumpstart its economy and rekindle tourism. To that effect, mayor Bill de Blasio has just announced an executive order that will suspend the city’s 5.875-percent hotel room occupancy tax for a three-month period, beginning June 1.

As part of New York’s efforts to jump-start tourism, New York mayor Bill de Blasio has announced that the city’s 5.875% hotel room occupancy tax rate will be temporarily eliminated for a three-month period, starting June 1.

As the city reawakens from the long pandemic, some of the most iconic spots are now open for business.

In late April, the commercial real-estate firm CBRE released a report with some alarming data: New York City’s hotels, at their current pace, would claw back to pre-pandemic levels of occupancy by 2025. And this was better than previously expected: The growing vaccination clip and new COVID-19 relief, forecasters hoped, would give the battered hospitality industry the boost it so desperately needed after its worst year on record.

In Times Square, the most densely tourist-populated place in the United States, a mentally disturbed man known as Mr. Kim begs cops to kill him. ‘I want to die. You have a gun? Shoot,’ he pleads. After the officers demur, he picks up a plank of wood and starts smashing it against the Pele soccer shop.