At the date of this writing, Europe is rolling out a vaccine passport in an effort to revitalize their tourism industry by any means necessary. Across the pond, we have New York City, which is possibly the tourism capital of the United States. Before the pandemic, literally, EVERYONE wanted to visit New York City. However, their European cousins are light years ahead of them when it comes to recovering from the pandemic. Will New York ever catch up? Will the Big Apple ever reach their all-time highs ever again? Of course, those who choose not to get vaccinated (or can’t get vaccinated, for whatever reason) not being allowed to travel, it definitely throws a wrench into locations such as New York City, which experienced a 73% drop in tourist spending in 2020. New York is starting to show some signs of revival, but will it continue with some of the corrupt and incompetent politicians that they have in charge? Time will tell.
First of all, spending by tourists in New York City dropped by almost 75% in 2020 as compared to the year before. This drop-in tourism caused the Big Apple to experience lost tax revenue of at least $1.2 billion. One of the main reasons for this is because New York City experienced at least 43 million fewer visitors in 2020, for a cut of at least 59% of the $2 billion that city experts believe they lost due to the pandemic. Moreover, the overall economic impact of the industry fell to $20.2 billion from the usual rate of $80 billion in 2019.
The hotel occupancy in the Big Apple has gone down considerably as well. Prior to the pandemic, hotels in New York City were booked at a rate of 89.6 percent, which was the highest in the nation. However, occupancy had dropped to an all-time low of 38.6 percent by September 2020. Additionally, New York City officials are getting for a long and hard recovery.
Of course, the green shoots of growth are beginning to sprout. However, it is still going to take several years before they reach pre-pandemic levels, according to New York Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.
“The damage the pandemic has caused to this industry has truly been staggering,” DiNapoli said in a statement last Wednesday. “It might take years before tourism returns to a pre-pandemic state. You have to realize that visitors and their spending have always been critical to measuring the health of any economy.”
Residents Leaving New York City For Good
New York City is largely made up of a services-based economy, and in that case it means they have grown largely dependent on tourism. However, one problem is that jobs in the tourism industry declined by a rate of 30%, down from 283,000 to 194,000, which is literally 89,000 individuals without a job.
The number of visitors to the City has tripled since 1991, with about half of that growth occurring in the years from 2009 to 2019. Driven by international tourism, this is one area that has been sharply affected by the COVID-19 travel restrictions.
Those who work in the tourism industry tend to live in the city, and the borough of Manhattan has been the largest creator of tourist jobs, with Queens and Brooklyn running a close second. International travelers spend the most money in New York City, and because things are starting to get better on the COVID front, they are already starting to trickle back to the Big Apple. However, there is now a new problem to contend within New York City: that of violent crime, which is skyrocketing to a rate that hasn’t been seen since before Rudy Giuliani took over. All of this continues to be due to inept liberal leadership!
What do you think about these lagging New York City tourism numbers? Your comments would be appreciated!