tourism

MTV is sponsoring a contest to promote the upcoming action film Max Payne starring Mark Wahlberg--and talk about the perfect setting for a gritty cop-movie gimmick!

"To celebrate the release of this slick new thriller, MTV is giving one lucky winner and a friend an NYPD trip to New York City. You’ll get flights, two-nights accommodation at the luxurious Hotel Pennsylvania..."

What, you were expecting the posh Hotel Carter?

Now, MTV wasn't around during the Swing Era, but has Kurt Loder and company bothered to peek inside the old Glenn Miller hangout recently?

(Read The Observer's extensive coverage here.)

"Save The Hotel" activist Gregory Jones once took issue with my use of the term "fleabag" to describe the dowdy would-be landmark on Seventh Avenue.

But, come on, luxurious?

The city is expecting about 400,000 fewer out-of-town visitors than originally anticipated this year, in light of the recent financial crisis.

Revised projections released today by the city's tourism office, NYC & Company, estimate a total of 47.3 million people traveling to New York in 2008 -- still, about 2.8 percent more than in 2007. The original forecast estimated about 47.7 million tourists.

Nearly 46 million visitors came to New York in 2007, according to the agency.

Prior to the economic downtown, the city had experienced a 10 percent increase in international travelers over the first six months of 2008.

The Federal Reserve released on Wednesday its every-six-weeks anecdotal take on the national economy called The Beige Book. Here's a grab-bag of ultimately meh numbers for New York City:

• Broadway theaters report that business "improved moderately" in July and early August compared to the six weeks before. Attendance and ticket revenues increased 1 to 2 percent annually in July and 3 percent in the first half of August.
• Average Manhattan apartment asking rents declined 2 to 4 percent in July and August compared to the same months last year (more on falling rents here). And: "The rental vacancy rate, though still below 2 percent, is reported to have climbed noticeably over the past year."
• More home sales are falling through due to tighter financing. The sales markets in Brooklyn and Queens were worse for sellers than in Manhattan.
• The number of construction permits issued in June for multi-family buildings was four times greater than in the same month in 2007. And the first half of 2008 saw 63 percent more multi-family building permits issued than the first half of 2007.

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"That's Brooklyn Heights over there," said the 47-year-old driver of a Brooklyn-bound double-decker Gray Line tour bus, pointing across the East River. "Wherever there's water, there's money, and I don't mean a puddle on the street."

I had just boarded the at the South Street Seaport, paid my $41 fare, and taken my seat at the front of the top level, prepared to spend two hours Monday viewing my borough through the eyes of a stranger. The driver was warming up the crowd with a rendition of the Drifters' "Under the Boardwalk" while we waited for our actual guide, an older Southern man named Robert, who has lived in New York since 1971.  read more »

You might want to think twice before you get exasperated at the sheer number of international tourists shuffling through midtown with maps unfurled, because they spent more money here in 2007 than in any other U.S. city, according to a new survey released by Global Insights. The city overtook Orlando and Las Vegas to become the top spending destination for foreigners, moving from the No. 3 spot when the survey was last conducted in 2006.

Last year, 1.5 million more overseas tourists visited the city compared to 2006, increasing its share of total international tourists 3.3 percent. Foreign visitors also pushed up Washington, Miami, Seattle, and Santa Ana/Anaheim, Calif.  read more »

Are skyrocketing gas prices nixing your vacation plans? Here's a cheap getaway: Stay home.

NYC & Company is launching a new campaign this week called "Go Local."

"We're somewhat bored with the word 'staycation,'" noted George Fertitta, CEO of the city's tourism agency.

Beginning Thursday, NYC & Company street crews will be hitting up all the major transit hubs, passing out pamphlets about all the events, activities, and attractions happening right here in the five boroughs -- things like the Governors Island Folk Music Festival, Latino Film Fest, and, yes, those makeshift waterfalls that everyone seems to be talking about.

"This isn't a consolation prize -- this is as good as it gets," said Mr.  read more »

Traditionally, New Yorkers flee the city on Memorial Day weekend and visitors flood in, making it the ideal time to take the pulse of Manhattan's tourism sector. Based on domestic conditions, the summer season appears poised for a washout—gas prices are sky-rocketing, consumer spending is down, whispers about belt-tightening abound. Some vendors are indeed feeling the pinch, but overall it lookes like foreign currency has once again cushioned the city from the blows pummelling the rest of America.

“Things are pretty robust and the weak dollar is to thank for that,” said Chris Heywood, vice president of the city's official tourism wing, NYC & Co.  read more »

It’s too early to tell how many out-of-towners will come to the city for Pope Benedict XVI’s visit, but everyone from pedicab drivers to butchers are clamoring for a piece of the pope-tourism pie.

Though only 57,000 tickets are available for the pontiff’s mass at Yankee Stadium, the city’s official tourism company NYC & Co. is expecting “people from around the country, and international visitors, to come and experience the papal visit as well,” said agency spokesperson Tiffany Townsend.

In anticipation of the hordes, all kinds of businesses are whipping out pope-related products or deals to appeal to the devoutly Catholic. Or devoutly kitsch.  read more »

Jonathan Tisch, your New York Giants just won the Super Bowl! What are you going to do now?

"It's time to move on," Mr. Tisch told the Times on Sunday, announcing that he's stepping down as chairman of NYC & Company, the city's tourism agency.

The 54-year-old co-owner of the Giants and CEO of the Loews Hotels chain, whose properties include the 353-room Regency at 540 Park Avenue, helped spearhead efforts to resuscitate the city's wounded tourism industry after the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Besides winning the Super Bowl, Mr. Tisch can also boast of attaining an all-time-high annual tourism level of 46.3 million visitors in 2007.  read more »

A breakdown of the city's latest tourism estimates suggests that Britons (1.46 million), Canadians (880,000), and Germans (470,000) comprised the biggest crowds of international visitors to New York in 2007.

Numbers were up among all groups last year -- including the roughly 300,000 residents of Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, weirdly categorized as "BeNeLux" -- except for one, the Japanese.  read more »

"We are incredibly grateful for the weak dollar," quipped George Fertitta, head of the city's tourism office NYC & Company.

Mr. Fertitta joined Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Robert Lieber in crediting "beneficial exchange rates" for boosting tourism to record levels in 2007.

An estimated 46 million total travelers visited New York last year, contributing some $28 billion to the local economy, according to the city's latest projections, which officials presented at a press conference at Pier 88 on Sunday alongside the docked Queen Victoria cruise ship.  read more »

Tomorrow is the last chance to view what could possibly be the creepiest advertising campaign to hit Manhattan in recent memory, the world's largest snowglobe in Bryant Park.

Live actors dressed in ice-hockey, ski, and snow-boarding gear have been holed up in the two-story tall vinyl dome that's 20 feet in diameter since Friday to promote tourism in Ontario.  read more »