April 16, 2008
Foreign Tourists Are NYC's Economic Safety Net
New York City has a buoy helping it resist the receding economic tide: Tourists. In particular, foreign tourists who are relatively flush with currency that has strengthened against the American dollar. The city's marketing agency NYC & Company says tourism increased by one million visitors during the first quarter of 2008 versus the same period in 2007, and that 20% of those visitors arrived from abroad. And last year a record 46 million visited the city!
According to the NY Times, restaurateur Danny Meyer added the Euro equivalent prices to his wine list to highlight the comparative bargains European tourists were getting while imbibing. Meyer said he's been selling more and pricier wines at The Modern, his restaurant in the MoMA. And hotels are enjoying record occupancy rates, in spite of an average price of $270/night. Some smaller stores are even accepting Euros.
Since foreign visitors to cities like Chicago and Los Angeles have dropped sharply, never quite recovering from a post-September 11 falloff, it's not all about the weak dollar. The city's lower crime rate and general gentrification have made NYC a more appealing vacation destination. Also, the City's been actively courting foreign tourists with an international promotional campaign. But tourists should know: If they get sick, ACS might take their kids.
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According to the NY Times, restaurateur Danny Meyer added the Euro equivalent prices to his wine list to highlight the comparative bargains European tourists were getting while imbibing. Meyer said he's been selling more and pricier wines at The Modern, his restaurant in the MoMA.
And thank goodness the city is helping Danny Meyer carve out a new restaurant in Union Square. Maybe we can watch the Euros being spent through a chain link fence?
So instead of making the metrocard more expensive for tourists they hit us hard working NYer's who have to buy the monthly pass. Nice.
why does that lady get to stand in front of the barricade, that is totally unfair to the other people with cameras behind her!
I'm going to guess that lady said "Look a-holes, I live in this city. Don't crowd me and thanks for visiting."
Yeah! I'm living in a city only the rich & entitled and tourists can afford!
YEAH!
Where's the stats on foreign visitors dropping in chicago and los angeles?
cite your sources damnit.
Matty, those figures are mentioned in the Times piece.
From the Times:
Well alright!
From NY TIMES
"While the number of international tourists coming to the United States last year was still two million below the number who visited in 2000 — the year before the Sept. 11 attacks — New York has bucked that trend. It was the only one of the 10 American cities most popular with foreign visitors that drew more of them in 2006 than in 2000, according to the federal Department of Commerce."
From US COMMERCE DEPARTMENT
http://tinet.ita.doc.gov/tinews/archive/tinews2008/20080311.html
"The U.S. Department of Commerce announced that a record 56.7 million international visitors traveled to the United States in 2007, an increase of 11 percent over 2006. This level also surpassed the 2000 record year of 51.2 million visitors. Ten of the top 25 arrival markets broke records set in previous years."
So where did the Times get it's stats? The publication by the Tourism Bureau - where they had to have gotten their information from - directly conflicts with the Times' article.
Was this just a marketing piece made by NYC & Co!?!?
Amazing that all of those one million new tourists were in my way at one point or another over the past few months.
I sent this post to the times for clarification. It seems like that completely misquoted the press release.
as we were theirs in the late 90s. nothing new.
They come from all over the world to stand motionless in front of me at the top of the subway stairs! How I love them !
Buy those extra Mac's and Ipod's.
Sell em home and it pays for your vacation here?.
I remember French friends doing that with Answering machines in the 1970's as they were so expensive
and heavily taxed in Europe then.