Times Square, Central Park, the Empire State Building… places that evoke travel memories – or projects – for many French tourists. But Cobble Hill, Mott Haven or Flatbush? They still often remain unknown to the battalion. So NYC & Company, the official marketing institution of New York City, wants to get the message across: all these little-known neighborhoods of the Big Apple are also New York!
Like most destinations, the New York OT is trying to learn the lessons of the pandemic, and to evolve its strategy. “Our goal is to encourage slow tourism, explains Reginald Charlot, in charge of tourism development within NYC, who recently visited Paris to meet professionals in the sector. Generally, the French spend seven nights in New York, he says. Our goal is to encourage visitors to discover the essentials, but also the other districts, less popular with tourists, but which allow them to taste the spirit of New York. The French are demanding, he believes, they are more adventurous and want to think outside the box. If they stay ten days, they have time to discover other facets of the city. »
The initiative is also part of an economic development objective. By deconcentrating the flows, the ambition is to better distribute the financial benefits of the tourism windfall, to create jobs, while ensuring that all communities in New York City benefit from the recovery in tourism.
Open to plurality
“This is a major change for us, because before no one was talking about these neighborhoods,” continues Reginald Charlot. We want to show the plurality, the diversity of New York through this energy, this dynamism that we find everywhere and not only in the traditional neighborhoods that tourists know like Times Square or the Statue of Liberty. The desire is really to open up to the plurality of the destination. »
In March 2022, the city launched a marketing and promotional campaign called Get Local NYC, which aims to inspire visitors to explore the diversity of the five boroughs and support local businesses and businesses. Travel diaries in the form of complete digital guides dedicated to Brooklyn and the Bronx have already been unveiled, pending the launch of dedicated diaries for Manhattan, Staten Island and Queens.
Six months after the reopening of the borders, the indicators seem positive for the destination. “The hotels tell us that they are full in May, June and July,” reports Reginald Charlot. But in New York too, booking behavior has evolved. When a trip was most often booked six or nine months in advance before the pandemic, the deadlines are now generally reduced to three months. »
9000 new rooms
On the hotel side, “there have been closures, unfortunately, confirms Reginald Charlot. These are most often hotels that were already in difficulty, and which did not resist the Covid crisis. Others have taken the opportunity to completely renovate themselves. And this year we are expecting the opening of 9,000 rooms,” he rejoices. In particular, the Fouquet’s Barrière, the Aman New York hotel, the Ritz Carlton, NoMad, the Hard Rock Hotel, a Virgin Hotel, a Moxy, etc. are expected. Some establishments will also set up in the lesser-known districts of the Big Apple. The city’s 3 main airports will offer major new facilities to welcome visitors.
“The forecasts for tourist attendance in 2022 in NYC are positive with 56.4 million tourists overall, including 8 million international travelers including 515,000 French people,” reports NYC. France is in 3rd position in the international ranking of countries sending visitors to New York City, behind Canada and Great Britain. »
No change in sight for the moment concerning travel formalities. For now, a test of less than 24 hours is still required to travel to the United States. Tourism professionals hope that this requirement will soon be dropped; in any case, they make the request to the American authorities. On the other hand, the test to be carried out in France is no longer required, France having again classified the United States among the destinations of green category.
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