As visitors flock back to the Big Apple, the city’s hospitality industry closes with half a million room nights
Weekly demand for hotel rooms in New York City reached over 481,000 room nights sold in the week of July 12, its highest level since the pandemic began. That is an increase of 17,000 overnight stays, an increase of 3.5 percent compared to the previous week. Mayor Bill de Blasio said this at a press conference.
“This is incredible progress,” said de Blasio, adding that the city is nearing its goal of half a million overnight stays per week. “We’re well on our way to meet and then exceed our goals because people are coming back to New York City.”
In the early days of the pandemic, the city’s hospitality industry was particularly hard hit, leading to massive layoffs and layoffs many hotels are closing, especially in Midtown. Apparently around 100 hotels are still closed.
And despite the good news, there are still headwinds for the industry that are still a long way off the recovery. In normal times, tourism contributes $ 80 billion to the city’s GDP and accounts for 7.2 percent of total private sector employment.
Well, concerns about the COVID-19 Delta variant and the ongoing closure of the U.S. border to international inbound tourist travel just announced by the Biden administration [insert link to BT USA News US Maintains Travel Restrictions v1] takes some of the shine from the Big Apple.
According to a study by the hotel industry analyst CBRE at the beginning of the year, hotel occupancy in the city should rise to 43.3 percent in the first half of 2021, compared to the gloomy 35 percent in 2020. On average, the study predicts an increase in occupancy of a to 74, 3 percent in 2022 and a return to a more normal 86-plus-percent by 2025.
To achieve those numbers, the city recently launched a $ 30 million, federally funded marketing campaign to boost tourism. Regarding COVID-19, which is keeping visitors out, de Blasio said new variants would not be a problem if people were only given the vaccine.
“I mean this is crazy. Get vaccinated, ”he demanded. “It’s time for a very aggressive, assertive approach. People have to get vaccinated. “
