Hotels, museums, but also theaters and restaurants … The confinement has dealt a blow to tourism in New York, which usually attracts 65 million visitors per year. Despite the anxiety-provoking climate and the continued closure of borders, professionals in the sector are implementing health measures to welcome local holidaymakers in the best conditions.
Lhe season promised to be incredible. We had better figures than last year at the same time. Then, at the beginning of March, the cancellations started. “ The French Élise Goujon, founder of the Off Road guided tours, will remember this 2020 season for a long time. Present since 2013 in New York, where she organizes unusual tours in French, the small company had to cancel all its visits because of the Covid- 19. A blow for the company, also located in Miami and Los Angeles, because the Big Apple represents more than half of its turnover. “It’s very difficult to call customers to tell them the tours are canceled. Some have been planning their trip to the United States for years. It was also sad for our guides who hadn’t worked much during the low season from January to March. The activity was to restart in April. “
Like many tourism professionals in New York, Élise Goujon is now waiting. As the city began its deconfinement on June 8, experts believe that tourism could be … the last sector to rebound. With the health crisis, of which New York was the epicenter in the United States, with more than 200,000 cases in mid-June, all the attractions for which the metropolis is famous were closed, from the Statue of Liberty at the observatories (Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center …) through the major museums (Met, MoMA, Guggenheim …) and Broadway.
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