NEW YORK CITY TOURISM CONTINUES TO GROW

The recent history of New York City has been firmly blighted by the images of 9/11 and the horrific terrorist attacks, which stunned the world. However, although the tourism industry of the area was originally affected for obvious reasons, figures from recent years have been very encouraging. In fact, NYC is now the absolute centre of American tourism, having surpassed Orlando and Las Vegas.

It has been suggested in many quarters that, now that the immediate threat of terrorism, has calmed down, New York’s popularity has actually improved. People now view ground zero as a tempting tourist attraction. It is a little similar to genocide museums and concentration camp relics remaining in Poland and Cambodia. It seems that peoples’ hidden macabre interests need to be somehow satisfied.

This does not defer from the fact that the Big Apple is still a blooming city and the absolute epitome of a super modern metropolis. Its hotel occupation rate has been increasing rapidly and is now 20 percentage points higher than the American average. The giant city now offers 75.600 rooms in total and room demand has recently risen by 2%.

To describe the situation purely in figures, 47 million people came to New York last year, leaving total revenue of $30 billion behind. The weakened dollar, particularly against the pound and the euro, has enticed more visitors than usual from Europe, as has the seeming relaxation in American security checks and random deportations at airports.

Let’s face it, NYC offers a lot of things visitors can do with their dollars, whether it be gambling or high street shopping. There is a very small possibility of becoming bored in, what is believed to be, the world’s most varied and cosmopolitan area.