Think of it as a form of foreign direct investment, making it possible for the city to have so many world class museums, performing arts, and restaurants. We couldn’t keep them all in business with only NYC or domestic tourist dollars
And I’ve heard a few foreign friends say in the past two years that they’ve consciously chosen NYC or CA as a destination in the US instead of branching out to other areas of the country, so wonder whether some of this growth is at the expense of other parts of the US.
New York wouldn’t be New York without tourists. Doesn’t bother me at all. And I get to host my friends who visit me. If I moved to Cincinnati I doubt if I would get too many visitors.
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@Ardyth: Most of the population of this country consists of people whose families immigrated years (or centuries) ago! Does that describe you, perhaps, also?
I did NOT say I don't want anyone to get in my way, so don't put words in my mouth. What I DID say is that 67 million visitors a year leads to an unacceptable level of overcrowding in NYC, b/c most of them are in Manhattan.
Are you getting 67 million visitors in San Diego every year? No, because San Diego gets about HALF the number of visitors NYC gets.
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I don't appreciate my home being turned into a tourist attractions. NYC is not a zoo and I am not an attraction. Just because you can make money this way, doesn't mean you should. You don't see them building tourist hotels in Beverly Hills.
For this we have Giuliani and Bloomberg to thank. An Honorable Mention goes out to DeBlasio for not messing it all up.
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67 million? Ugh. How can people even breathe crammed in like that? Makes me think of Harry Harrison's "Make Room! Make Room!" Methinks it's time to start a Soylent Green factory in NYC. 'Red hots! Get your red hots here! Now made with Soylent Green!'
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I welcome tourists, sometimes in their own language. In Central Park, I am happy to point out some sights. Like most New Yorkers, I like to give directions but I think that I give proper directions. I recommend tourists take a round trip on the Staten Island Ferry at sunset.
I have learned to avoid tourists at certain locations. I do not go to the Metropolitan Museum during Christmas. In any season, I go to that museum when it opens and depart before 11:30 AM. The Met is rather dependent on sales at its shop which must generate sales tax revenue as well.
Clearly, abuse of Air BNB, as portrayed in the NYT, has brought down the amount tourists spend and has been harmful to affordable housing in New York. In Italy, tourists have become a plague of low spending individuals whose behavior has been rude. In Amsterdam, tourists, especially football hooligans, are often just drunken louts. City government should get ahead of the curve in dealing with the deficits of mass tourism.
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"N.Y.C. Is on Pace to Draw a Record 67 Million Tourists This Year"
And that is one reason I will not be visiting the city where I was born and love very much. We came to NY last September and boarded a cruise ship in New Jersey. The city was crowded beyond anything I ever recall in the past. We couldn't get around in Manhattan and the expressways were jammed too. Normally I would visit friends in Brooklyn and Queens. But it was too much.
I love NY. It's the most wonderful city in the world. I wish I could go back in time and live in the New York I remember as a kid from the Bronx. I used to take the E and F trains from Queens to Manhattan to attend classes at FIT at 27th Street. It was a schlep but not impossible. I can no longer take the pace of the city and the crowds. We'll be up North again in late September and maybe there will be a seasonal difference in crowds. I'l give it one more try! I miss New York! Maybe New York could host another World Fair in Flushing and take the crowds out of Manhattan.
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I would like to know now the algorithms of NYC & Company work. Since their funding is predicated on getting people to visit NYC, it is not beyond belief that the numbers have been creeping up just to justify their existence. What sources do they use to estimate the visitors? Do I count when I drive in over the GWB to visit relatives? Most of the time I do not stay in NYC because it is too expensive (half price to stay in New Jersey, not to mention larger hotel rooms. And, if they do try to count me, do they count each day I come in? I might be there for a week so that would be 7 times they count me. Inquiring minds want to know.
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@BigFootMN. Maybe the reporter can ask NYC & Company how they figure these numbers. What software are they using? If you look at past history of NYC & Company they pretty much use the same press release each year and just change the date.
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I guess all the doomsday predictions that no one would come to The USA or New York once Trump was elected did not pan out just like most of the lefts other doomsday predictions
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How are the farmers doing?
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@Zejee
Same as they always have. Heavily subsidized by taxpayers because Democrats believe in giving away hard working peoples money to people like you because they don't like working.
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Democrats? Trump just gave farmers $16 billion to make up for their loses because of the trade war with China. Farm bankruptcies are at a record high in farm states.
And are you actually suggesting that farmers don’t work?
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Combining two parking items, the news item and the Diary entry:
Before stealing anyone's parking spot, and then feeling sorry in for what you did, be practical. One of the commenters over at the Diary page had a sobering warning if etiquette is not enough to make you act properly, to the effect that some visitors (and locals) may even have their mind in the "second amendment nation" concept!!! So don’t ever forget: you don’t know the mood and temperament of the person in that other car. if you've had a bad day, taking it out on a stranger might make it even worse.
Tune of Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi”
It’s never nice,
Stealing a parking spot.
Take this advice,
Don’t steal a parking spot.
Don’t you know you ought to go!
When a stranger’s angry, wave and move on.
Maybe think twice,
Don’t steal a parking spot.
Maybe think twice,
Pass up that parking spot.
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I have to comment on another article in today’s NYTimes. The one by Jeff Giles about NYC fire hydrants being used in summer hot weather. The photographs from years ago are most enjoyable!
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Every year the city says there's a record number of tourists. My questions are where do all of the taxes they pay go to when they shop, see Broadway shows, stay in hotels and eat out? Not to mention the millions of dollars the MTA makes when they take buses and trains? I think the MTA getting rid of the bus signs is one of the dumbest ideas this agency has ever had! When you're looking for a bus and are walking on the street, to look up and see the signs is easier than going to the MTA app, which, on occasion, has had problems. If you look up the word "problems" in the dictionary, you'll see the MTA logo.
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@Sherri Rosen. Let’s not forget the Dolans of Madison Square Garden Gabe a tax break. The corporate greed of the Dolan Brothers who sit in NYC & Companies board.
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Hi Sherri, regrading "My questions are where do all of the taxes they pay go to when they shop, see Broadway shows, stay in hotels and eat out?"
There is so much waste that seems to justify when Mnuchin doesn't want the Federal taxes to take part of the tax burden by allowing the tax breaks through the IRS. We on the Democratic Party side tried to argue it's punishment by the G.O.P. to states and cities like New York but every time the Mayor wastes tax money on a staff to work out in Brooklyn (he's proven now being away so much that there's no "Brooklyn YMCA magic" that keeps him fit, although I agree yes, don't MeToo me for this, but he does looks really good for late 50s - but even given that, it's always been a tax waste) and when the Governor openly wastes a fortune rushing the 2nd Avenue Subway for New Years that year or painting tunnels the state colors rather than one color - that's gives Mnuchin a reason, and how can anyone argue that he's wrong there?
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I would like to know who does the estimates and how it is done.
As the old saying goes, figures don't lie but liars figure.
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Why only talk about the summer when tourist season here seems to be all year round???
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Tourism has historically (let's use the 1960s as a starting point) been part of NYC and an important part of NYC's economy.
But what has been different, particularly over the past 15 years, has been the huge number - tourists and related tourist businesses have essentially "taken" over NYC in many aspects and impacted on residents, including traditional residential areas.
Tourism is now "over-tourism" and has contributed to hyper-gentrification and loss of housing for real New Yorkers.
For example, 5 residential buildings in the East Village were torn down to enable a Marriott Moxy Hotel. On the Upper West Side, tourist bicycle rental stores are expanding and replacing local neighborhood stores. During the Bloomberg years, the M7 bus was re-routed to enable the Times Square pedestrian "plaza." Airbnb clearly has resulted in the loss of housing for residents - some studies have determined that 15% of units in some neighborhoods are no longer used for housing but instead are "professional" Airbnb.
There are many more examples. Tourism is not a help if long-time New York residents can't find housing or lose their neighborhoods to tourists....
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@SLM. Airbnb is an international plague...and how many of these landlords avoid paying ANY taxes on their ‘hotels’? It’s outrageous — and destroying neighborhoods at the same time. Short-term rentals are the cause of much of the housing crisis in city after city.
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I’ve been to many cities in many countries in the world and New York City is my favorite. My grandmother brought me to New York City i. 1954 when I was 12 and I’ve been coming ever since. My favorite time is early November when she is newly dressed for the holidays...every block is indeed magical. Just standing on a corner waiting for a traffic light to change you are in the “world.” And Grand Central station has the best chicken sandwich I have ever eaten.
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Thank you. I think most of us enjoy showing off our city to visitors -- it's just that so few of the more hospitable types comment in the Times.
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There are too many tourists in NYC, period. They're taking over the city and raising crowding to unacceptable levels.
They make it difficult for those of us who actually live & work here to get around, or to enjoy our much-needed green spaces (like Central Park) in our free time. And tourists move in sidewalk-blocking groups at the speed of sludge.
I'd like a campaign that says "Go elsewhere; nothing to see here!" so that maybe, just *maybe* I could go to the Met Museum and SEE an exhibit without it being 5-deep in tourists taking selfies of themselves with the paintings.
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This is the price of living in New York or London or Rome or Paris:Tourism is part of what makes a city vibrant and exciting. Maybe life in a major travel site is just not for you. Consider moving to a smaller quieter city.
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@L
Have you ever gone to another city as a tourist? Maybe the people there feel the same way about you. NY has so much to offer in terms of museums, historical sites, shopping, etc. They bring in a lot of money, but the people of this city never see it.
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Re-read the article. Visitors are spending less and less. Surely there is a balance between the interests of a family visiting from Iowa (spending a few hundred dollars over a weekend patronizing Airbnb, Starbucks and TGI Friday’s) and city residents who pay the taxes and make the city what it is.
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It's good that New York City is seeing a significant increase in both foreign & domestic tourists.
New York State's Division of Tourism (Empire State Development Corporation) "I Love NY" program must be more aggressive in advertising and promoting New York State tourism venues north of the Bronx and west of the Hudson River.
The number and percentage of Lower (i. e., NYC metro) New York State area residents who have traveled to Upper New York State is dismally low.
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That is sad. A few weeks ago, I journeyed up to the Finger Lakes, revisited Ithaca, and took lovely strolls past probably a dozen waterfalls. A short trip but beautiful.
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@Harvey Botzman
Part of the problem is that it's not easy for many here in the city locals and tourists without cars or drivers licenses to get up there. Impossible to get to Watkins Glen, the Adirondacks, and Letchworth without a car.
You should be asking New York State to be more aggressive in getting more and faster bus and train service up there to get people from down here to visit. That's the main issue.
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@Max There is no doubt that public transit outside of the New York City metro area (and even inside the area (Suffolk, Nassau, Westchester, or Rockland counties) is not as effective or efficient as the City's MTA.
New York City & environs residents are used to taking public transit. How about taking Amtrak to Albany, Schenectady, Utica, Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo, or Niagara Falls? Or take Greyhound/New York Trailways/the "Chinese" bus to Corning, Ithaca or Watkins Glen?
I use a bicycle to tour, not everyone wants or can travel in that manner. I suggest you view the Facebook Canalway Challenge page to see some of the beauty & culture of Upper New York. & "Like" many of the pictures on those pages.
I advocate for better rail as the New York Bicycling Coalition representative (& therefore the New York State representative) to the Amtrak/Adventure Cycling Assn. Bicycle Task Force and as a member of the Rail Passengers Assn. I do badger my Representatives, U. S. & State Senators, & NYS Assemblyperson to improve public transit.
I ask, what are you doing doing to improve public transit outside of Lower New York State. In essence we all have to work for the common good.
BTW: I grew up in the Bronx and went to high school in Manhattan, taking a subway and two buses to go to a public high school.
If I can make it down to New York City by public transit (usually Amtrak) y'all can make it up here by public transit.
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The trend of more and more people traveling but spending less and less is disturbing. Perhaps it’s the natural consequence of cheaper and cheaper air fare making travel more accessible to those of lesser means.
Is the economic juice worth the squeeze? Over-taxed airports, Airbnb disruption, blocking sidewalks to take selfies, the crushing burden on public spaces, proliferation of cheap souvenir shops, hawkers selling tickets, etc. The tourist hordes detract from (and do not enhance) city life.
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Over $10,000 a month per unit.
That means both that developers are reaping big rewards in agreeing to bait and switch along Fourth Avenue -- and that the homeless aren't just homeless, pushed out of their affordable homes by "gentrification," but actively needy and dysfunctional, requiring scads of social workers and attorneys that come with the price tag.
How many are from Maine and from elsewhere, looking for a career here as folk singers, and should just go home to their families; how many need a new apartment because their health insurance didn't pay for a required surgery, they fell behind on the rent, and were evicted (unlikely, given our tenant-friendly laws); and how many belong in a kinder, gentler Creedmore or Willowbrook or a drug-addiction center whose cure will finally stick?
Ten thousand is quite a "rent."
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NYC & Company fails to give accurate numbers. They are not including all the illegal air bnbs and they are not including occupancy of hotels that are filled with the homeless. Hotels are taking out of inventory turned into condos and hotels are suppose to report their numbers at the end of the night of what their occupancy is. When hotels are turned into shelters these numbers are reported as full hotels. Someone needs to do an audit at NYC & Company. Maybe former Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz can elaborate more since he’s on the payroll at the tourism agency.
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