Posted on: Thursday, December 20, 2001

Season not jolly for New York tourism

By Tara Burghart
Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK — The holiday season that is so crucial to New York's $25 billion tourism industry is looking grim, despite a host of promotions and a late boost from patriotic visitors.

Hotel occupancy this month is expected to be down 8 percentage points from last December. Travel into metropolitan airports is projected to be off 20 percent over the holidays. Broadway ticket sales are down 15 percent.

Visitors who have shown up came much later than usual.

"People weren't in a planning mode, whether it was making reservations for a restaurant or a hotel or buying tickets for a Broadway show," said Jed Bernstein, president of the League of American Theaters and Producers.

College student Theresa Barbadore, 22, said her family took advantage of discount deals and traveled by train from Braintree, Mass., to spend two nights in the city, shop and see the Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall.

"The best thing anyone could do for the city is support it by coming in," she said.

The Barbadore family is typical of the "patriotic" visitors New York has attracted since the Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center, said Cristyne Nicholas, president and chief executive of NYC & Company, the city's tourism bureau.

Many have come from nearby states, such as New Jersey and Connecticut, or from upstate. But Nicholas said such visits do not bring the city nearly as much money because the trips are shorter and might not involve a hotel stay.

Hotel occupancy rates for December are forecast at 70 percent, down from 78 percent last year, said Joseph Spinnato, president of the Hotel Association of New York City.

For an industry that saw occupancy rates drop by nearly half in the weeks immediately after Sept. 11, the season has been busier than anticipated, Spinnato said.

But many hotels had to offer steep discounts to attract tourists. At the Tribeca Grand and SoHo Grand, some deluxe rooms were almost $100 cheaper than last year.

A month after the attacks, Nicholas told Congress that New York's 37 million annual visitors support 282,000 city jobs. Last year tourism generated nearly $1 billion in city taxes and more than $2 billion for state and federal coffers.

Politicians, hotel owners and entertainment venue operators have scrambled to put together discount packages and marketing campaigns to bolster holiday tourism. A "Freedom Package" put together by NYC & Co. links hotels, Broadway shows and restaurants for as little as $157 a night. About 9,700 packages have been sold so far.

Still, Broadway shows are suffering. For the last three weeks, ticket sales and grosses have been running about 15 percent below last year, Bernstein said. Eight shows plan to close after Jan. 1, compared with about six in previous years.

Tickets to the traditional holiday favorite, the New York City Ballet's production of "The Nutcracker," are lagging.

Nicholas said the city must recapture the tourists who fly in from around the United States and overseas.

"Folks who can take the bus, train or their car into the city have been propping us up for the last two months," she said. "New Yorkers who hadn't seen a Broadway show in a year or two made it an obligation to see a show."

That helps in the short term, she said, but "that can't be sustained."