Destinations

Putting the New in New York City

Tourism officials from NYC & Company, the city’s official destination marketing organization, were in Toronto yesterday (May 1) to highlight what’s new in New York City – including hotel and attraction developments, shopping and expanding free WiFi across all five boroughs – ahead of a Canadian sales mission, which kicks off today.

Addressing the “elephant in the room,” Fred Dixon, president and CEO of NYC & Company, pointed out the notion that foreign currency such as the low Canadian dollar and “some of the political rhetoric that is going on in the world today,” could result in a downturn in international arrivals.

“Beginning in February with the conversations around the travel ban and extreme vetting at the borders of entry to the US, we began to see a change in not necessarily booking patterns at this point, but searches, the way travellers around the world were searching for the US as a destination, so that was a little bit of an alarm,” he says.

“We then, of course, saw the Toronto School Board make their decision to ban groups into the US later this year – these are signs that there could be something wrong – and so we’re closely monitoring this situation. It’s not a crisis by any means.”

According to revised predictions, overall inbound travel to the US is slated for a 3% decrease, whereas a 2% decline is predicted in NYC, including a potential downturn of around 20,000 Canadian visitors.

“You may think 2% isn’t a very big number, but in New York tourism is big business and last year we welcomed 60.7 million visitors and almost 13 million of them were from outside of the US. So when you’re looking at a 2% loss on a market as large as that, it has an impact. We’re looking at a downturn of possibly 300,000 international arrivals this year out of almost 13 million and each one of them when they’re in NYC spends an average of about $2,000, which is four times what a domestic traveller will spend in New York.”

As such, he says NYC & Company launched a new international communications and marketing initiative titled, “New York City – Welcoming the World,” which encourages travellers to experience the destination for themselves. Using the Statue of Liberty in the campaign, Dixon also said it’s a symbol that, “all are welcome in New York City.”

Dixon told PressToday the city was one of the first to speak up with concerns surrounding Trump’s travel ban and how it may impact tourism.

“With travel being as important as it is to NYC, it’s an enormous industry for our community, we always will speak out against any impediments for travel inbound into the US,” he says. “We feel very strongly that the ability to travel freely, while securely – we will always prioritize safety and security of course, but the ability to travel freely is important not only to our community not only from a business and commerce perspective, but also for arts and culture and study. So it’s something that we have been vocal about, we were one of the first destinations to speak up about concerns around the travel ban, and the implications it has not just on the six or seven countries that were involved in the travel ban, but also on the message that it sends to the world and so that is something you’ll continue to see us focus on.”

In terms of hotel development, some 112,000 hotel rooms are in the pipeline across properties such as Moxy Hotel (expected to open this month), SLS Park Avenue (spring 2017), LUMA Hotel Times Square (spring 2017) and The Hoxton Brooklyn (late 2017).

Often perceived as an expensive destination, NYC boasts many affordable options from hotels like the soon to open Pod Brooklyn Hotel to promotions like NYC Restaurant Week, with discounted three-course prix fixe menus at more than 350 restaurants or the launch of citywide NYC ferry service which will connect to all boroughs for the price of a single subway ride.

The road show hits Quebec City on May 3, and Montreal May 4.

Pictured at the Thompson Toronto are NYC & Company’s Christopher Heywood, Senior Vice President, Global Communications, and Dixon.