Mayor Mike Bloomberg's aggressive push ensures that the slowdown doesn't affect travellers decisions to visit one of the world's most expensive cities
The mayor of New York City recently set a revised tourism target for the city—55 million tourists and revenues of $70 billion by 2015. Though Mike Bloomberg will be out of City Hall by the end of next year, he has set tourism on a trajectory that has consistently defied the slowdown. The city has always beaten the rest of the United States in attracting tourist traffic—it has now exceeded its own expectations. Targets set for this year were met last year, making it an example for tourism authorities the world over.
In his three terms as mayor, Bloomberg has changed much of the way the city works, focusing on better transport, safety and cleanliness. He has also personally driven initiatives that have made the Big Apple more attractive for visitors. Earnings from tourism were up to $17.3 billion in 2011 and the sector provided 310,000 jobs.
Fundamental planning changes in zoning of the city boroughs to allow construction of more hotel rooms is one big initiative. This will take the available rooms in the city up from 73,000 to 92,000 in the next five years. Much of the planning is long term and meant to ensure that there is infrastructure to allow the city and its five boroughs to grow. De-bottlenecking the airports was a big initiative that somewhat eased entry points into the city. Blueprints are being laid out to handle traffic in 2030.
Yet, a lot of the push comes from initiatives that don’t necessarily require dollars on the ground. This July, a study by NYC & Company, the city’s marketing and tourism partnership organisation, showed that a year after the enactment of the Marriage Equality Act, same-sex marriages have generated about $259 million in economic impact and $16 million in revenues. About 8,200 same-sex marriage licences were issued in this period.
Even as the Act was passed, the city launched “NYC I Do”, a multi-channel, global communications initiative that promotes the attractiveness of the five boroughs as a place for couples to get married or enjoy their honeymoon. Marriage equality has made the city more open, inclusive and free—it has also helped support the local economy, says Bloomberg. NYC’s global image in popular culture and media, as a liberal city as a contrast to parts of redneck America, is boosted by these measures.
(This story appears in the 17 August, 2012 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)