April 1, 2022

New York City projected to see 70% increase in tourism in 2022

After the Covid pandemic brought the city's tourism industry to a near standstill, officials say they expect visitors to return in greater numbers this year. In a new report released this week, NYC & Company, the city's tourism agency, projects that New York City will see a 70 percent increase in tourism in 2022, including approximately 8 million international visitors. However, the city will be missing out on its fasting growing source of tourism, as China is still not permitting its citizens to travel abroad.
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May 10, 2021

All U.S. residents aged 16+ can get the COVID vaccine in New York

Any resident of the United States who is at least 16 years old is now eligible to receive the coronavirus vaccine in New York. In vaccination guidance updated last week, the state's Department of Health ditched the work or residency requirement to previously needed to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. The policy change comes as Mayor Bill de Blasio said he wants to set up mobile vaccination hubs at popular tourist destinations, like Central Park and Times Square, to vaccinate visitors to the Big Apple.
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May 6, 2021

New York City wants to vaccinate tourists in Times Square and Central Park

With tourism expected to ramp up this summer, New York City wants to be able to vaccinate visitors. On Thursday, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced plans to set up mobile coronavirus vaccination sites at tourist hotspots, like Times Square, Brooklyn Bridge Park, and Central Park. While the mayor said these hubs could be set up as early as this weekend, the state must first approve the plan as well as change a rule to allow non-New Yorkers to receive the vaccine.
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January 16, 2019

In 2018, NYC drew a record 65 million tourists—and that number will keep rising

NYC & Company, the city's tourism and marketing agency, announced on Wednesday that the number of visitors to the city rose to a record high of 65.2 million in 2018, as the New York Times first reported. This is a notable jump up from 2017's 61.4 million and the ninth straight annual increase. Most visitors still come from within the United States, but the number of tourists from China saw an uptick from 1.04 million in 2017 to 1.1 million. The agency was expecting an overall drop in tourism numbers, and particularly from China, due to President Donald Trump's trade battle with the country and "America First" rhetoric, but the industry continues to thrive in the president's hometown.
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November 20, 2017

Number of tourists visiting NYC hits record high despite drop in international visitors

New estimates from the city’s tourism promotion agency, NYC & Company, show that the number of visitors to New York City will increase again this year, making 2017 the eighth straight year of record-high tourism. As the New York Times reported, the city will take in 61.8 million visitors this year, an increase from 60.5 million visitors in 2016. However, the agency does expect the first drop in international visitors to the city since 2009, due to President Donald Trump’s “America First” rhetoric and his revised restricted travel ban on six Muslim-majority countries.
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December 19, 2016

Number of Chinese visitors continues to grow as NYC sets new tourism record

For the past decade, the number of Chinese tourists visiting NYC has been on the rise, and of the city's record-breaking 60.3 million visitors in 2016, more than 950,000 were from China. This is a "sevenfold increase since 2007," reports the Times, which notes how the city's tourism department, NYC & Company, is catering to the growing demographic, as they're spending more freely than visitors from Europe who have seen the value of the euro decrease in comparison to the dollar.
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June 17, 2015

VIDEO: What to Expect if You Were a Tourist Visiting NYC in the 1940s

Welcome to the "city of romance and excitement" in a time "where all roads lead to Gotham." This fascinating film produced by the city's PR arm back in the '40s is a total time warp that will transport you to the better days when everyone enjoyed travel by train, dapper suits were daily uniforms, and the New York skyline was downright demure with just the Empire State Building and Chrysler piercing the sky. Though all the landmarks featured are ones you'd expect to see (Grand Central, the Top of the Rock, The Statue of Liberty) and don't appear all that much different than they do now (kids were bathing in Washington Square Park's fountain back then too), a number of the shots and commentary provided by the film's narrator really highlight how much our city has changed (imagine a harbor full of Titanic-like ocean liners and no 432 Park). Watch the 22-minute video ahead.
Watch the video here
February 23, 2015

Interactive Map Pinpoints Where in NYC Tourists Flock (and Locals Avoid)

If you're a New Yorker who grumbles at the sight of slowpoke tourists lollygagging down Manhattan's crowded streets, you'll want to see this map created by data artist Eric Fischer called "Locals & Tourists." Fischer collected tweets from across the five boroughs (and beyond) to determine what areas were most concentrated with out-of-towners (the red) and what areas were dominated by locals (the blue).
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February 2, 2015

NYC Breaks Tourism Record in 2014, Sees Increase in Chinese Visitors

After our commute this morning we couldn't help dreaming of getting out of this city for a couple of weeks (or months, who's counting), but 56.4 million people had the exact opposite idea in 2014. That's how many tourists visited the big apple this past year, smashing the previous record of 54.3 million visitors in 2013. One country that helped with the increase was China, not surprising considering the growing trend of wealthy Chinese investing in the NYC real estate market. According to the Times, "City officials estimate that more than 740,000 visitors came from China in 2014, almost five times as many as in 2009."
More on the record-breaking tourism trend

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