NEW YORK (AP) – The once deserted steps at the entrance to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York are once again filling with visitors. Hotel lobbies are losing their desolate air. In Manhattan, people are again taking selfies next to the Charging Bull statue on Wall Street.
Tourists who disappeared from New York’s museums, hotels and cultural attractions when the coronavirus pandemic broke out last year are gradually making a comeback with the lifting of restrictions.
There is still a long way to go before the closed theater district is once again crowded with international travelers.
But recently, indicators such as hotel occupancy and museum attendance have risen, thanks to national and local travelers who don’t mind seeing the city operating at a less frenetic pace than usual.
“I’ve always wanted to come to New York, just because of what I’ve seen in the movies,” said Chazmin Fuhrer, 26, who is visiting for the first time from Concord, California and who came to the city for a handful of days recently. to celebrate a friend’s birthday.
Sitting at a table in Times Square as three street performers began their dance, Fuhrer said she knew it wasn’t as busy as usual at all. But that’s fine with him.
“It’s good without too many people on the street,” she said, adding that the pre-pandemic crowd now would probably make her nervous, with the virus still circulating.
City officials are optimistic, even after an incident in Times Square on Saturday in which three people – including a girl – were injured by stray bullets during a dispute.
“Ultimately, people want to come to this city,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said Monday. “It is an overwhelmingly safe city, compared to other cities in the country, in the world.”
In 2019, approximately 67 million people visited the city. In 2020, the number fell to just over 22 million, mostly people who lived before the pandemic broke out in March.
Restaurants and shops were forced to close, as were some hotels, reducing room availability in the city from 124,000 to 88,000, according to tourism officials.
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