The borders of the United States are still closed to travelers from several countries normally attracted in large numbers by the Big Apple. If the trend continues, the metropolis will welcome 66% fewer tourists this year than at the same time last year, according to the municipal tourism agency, NYC & Company.
New York must contend this year with a deficit of several tens of millions of visitors. A hard blow, especially since tourism is a key sector of its economy.
Restaurants are trying to survive by offering places for consumption in the open air. But under the tantalizing offers of posters and marquees on Broadway in the Theater District, the theaters won’t reopen for months.
10 billion in economic losses to the City
The pandemic has claimed the jobs of more than one million New Yorkers. A recent report foresees that the recovery in the most affected sectors such as hotels and restaurants in New York may take years, and that the metropolis will not return to record influxes of tourists until the end of the year. 2024.
The coronavirus crisis has already cost New York City $ 10 billion. Mayor Bill de Blasio has asked the state to authorize the borrowing of $ 5 billion to finance current spending. He threatened to lay off 22,000 employees.
The mayor also announced on Wednesday that the city’s public schools, which had reopened their doors after much hesitation at the end of September, would be closed again from Thursday as a precaution.
On Twitter, he explained this decision by the fact that the rate of positive diagnoses has now reached the threshold of 3%, insisting on the need to fight the second wave of the pandemic.
The United States, the country most affected in the world in absolute terms, crossed the mark of 12 million identified cases of infection with the new coronavirus on Saturday, according to continuously updated figures from Johns Hopkins University.
The pandemic, which has killed more than 255,000 people in the United States, is in the exponential phase, according to health authorities.
With information from Anyck Béraud
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