How to get tourists back? After a successful covid vaccination campaign and a positive test rate of less than 5%, New York hopes to regain its appeal sooner than other major cities and will launch in June a campaign of unprecedented magnitude to attract visitors.
Tell Americans and international tourists that “New York wakes up” will cost $ 30 million, an unprecedented sum proposed Wednesday by Mayor Bill de Blasio and the president of the municipal travel agency, Fred Dixon.
As travel is still restricted, the message on traditional media, social media and through “influencers” will target Americans first and foremost. starting with friends or relatives of New Yorkers who will be called to “visit”. And then, if the pandemic allows, it will spread to a global audience, Dixon explained.
“There were 400,000 jobs linked to tourism before the pandemic, they will return,” De Blasio told a news conference. “New York is waking up. We have to tell people that we’re open, that they’re safe (…) It’s not going to be done day in and day out, we know that, but it will be done.”
What is at stake is considerable for a city that before the pandemic was one of the most visited in the world, with a record 66.6 million visitors in 2019. The number of tourists fell to 22 million in 2020.
Large pre-pandemic investments need to be amortized, such as the $ 1.2 billion Javits Center convention center, or the $ 8 billion renovation of LaGuardia Airport.
The bet is not won in advance: business districts have been deserted for 13 months, most employees continue to work from home, depriving income to a vast ecosystem of restaurants, shops and hotels. And crime is on the rise, reminding some of the dirty and sometimes dangerous city that New York was in the 1970s-80s.
Despite the start of the recovery of sports activities and some entertainment, it is still not possible to access key attractions such as Broadway musicals: their return is scheduled for September, although the travel agency did not rule out Wednesday that the date be anticipated.
Under these conditions, New York recently expects to receive a massive amount of tourists by 2023. The city government estimates that the largest city in the United States will reach its pre-pandemic level this year, 64.7 million visitors, and resume its growth from 2024, with 69 million tourists.