Like the tulips that bloom on Park Avenue, tourists are finally returning to the once deserted streets of New York City.

Tatiana Montalvo, a first grade teacher on her spring break, drove out of Washington, DC, where museums are still closed. She wandered the galleries of the Museum of Modern Art, strolled Central Park, wandered the Brooklyn Bridge, took the subway, and ate lots of Italian food.

Such visitors are a welcome change after the pandemic hit the New York tourism industry, which supports 400,000 jobs and an annual economy of $ 70 billion.

Tourists like Montalvo and her friend Raymond Selden enjoy a quieter city without the crowds, as well as hotel rooms that can cost half a third or a third as much as they did before Covid-19.

“I thought it would be difficult to get around, but it was very easy and fun to navigate,” said Selden, a paramedic, as the couple – both in their early 20s – walked through the museum’s galleries.

While the indicators are early and subtle, they are beginning to recover. According to STR, hotel occupancy has increased by six percentage points to 35% since January. The industry reported its fifth consecutive monthly increase in average daily room rates, up 12% since December.

According to Rafael Abreu, vice president of marketing at Statue Cruises, around 11,000 people took the ferry from Lower Manhattan to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island on a Saturday, four times as many as the previous month.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art averages 7,000 visitors a day, up from 4,000 when it reopened this summer. The American Museum of Natural History reports a similar increase. Last week, New York said it would increase the capacity limit for museums, zoos and cinemas.

Of course, tourism is still struggling after suffering a blow that even exceeds the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. It has barely recovered to the extent of other New York prosperity measures like the stock market. According to STR data, hotel occupancy has dropped from 88% two years ago. Coupled with the decline in visitor numbers, many rooms are empty as 200 of the city’s 700 hotels are closed, some of them permanently.

According to Vijay Dandapani, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Hotel Association of New York, the real rate is even lower given the hundreds of rooms purchased in the city for the homeless and coronavirus patients.

“We may see the first green shoots of tourism, but they don’t necessarily bear fruit or bear the tree,” said Dandapani.

For real revitalization, he said, New York needs a return from international and business travel, conferences and conventions.

According to NYC & Company, the city’s tourism marketer, New York City’s travel industry is unlikely to return to full strength for three years. 69 million visitors are expected in 2025. Before the pandemic, the agency had forecast a record 71 million visitors in 2021. Now she is forecasting 36 million.

Despite these gloomy prospects, the city’s hotel industry is facing a construction boom: 116 properties with 110,000 available rooms will be developed by the end of the year, an increase of 25% compared to 2020.

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