By: Hellen Zaboulani
Approximately 66 million tourists visit New York City annually. As of the eve of March 22nd, however, Gov. Andrew Cuomo ordered the Big Apple to take a deep sleep. The city that never sleeps has experienced a halt in all activities and nonessential business. Luxury shops have boarded up their once posh window displays, and malls have been shuttered indefinitely. Hotels have been either closed or transformed into housing for the homeless, or for healthcare workers and recovering Covid-19 patients. Only hospitals, pharmacies, supermarkets and takeout places remain open. Now, with talk of slowly opening nonessential businesses, the question on everyone’s minds is when will life return to normal? When will NYC’s famed attractions be crowded again?
The closest thing we have to a guide now is Gov. Cuomo’s four-phased reopening plan. As reported by the NY Post, the city of New York has met four of the seven benchmarks required to begin reopening. On Thursday, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that he expects the city will be ready as early as June 1st. Under the plan, curb-side retail service could begin in early June. Actual in-store shopping, however, will remain inaccessible till the third week of June at best.
The outlook for tourism is even more bleak. There does not seem to be a rainbow in sight as long as international travel restrictions remain. “Out of nearly 700 hotels, nearly half of them are closed,” said Vijay Dandapani, the President & CEO of the Hotel Association of New York. He said some hotels may start to open for regular guests beginning in July. “It hinges on how international and domestic travel pick up, how the tech companies react to this,” Dandapani said. “Unfortunately until Broadway reopens, until the Metropolitan Opera reopens, until the museums reopen, it’s going to take a lot of time, you’re not going to have the city with all its many lights on so to speak and that’s why you’ll see lower occupancy,” added Dandapani.
Many of the famed tourist attractions won’t open till the fourth phase of the governor’s plan, which may occur towards the end of July, if all goes well. Broadway will not be reopening till September or later. Even then things may be far from normal. Until a vaccine or cure is developed, Dandapani believes there will be a continued aversion to traveling. The new norm may include continued mask usage, outdoor retail stands outside of shops, Facetime calls with sales associates, and “single-serve public spaces”.
“First, New York City residents are going to have to come back to the city and then we will be the template for tourism. Once we start going back to Times Square and Bell Boulevard in Queens then the world will see New York City has got this,” said Councilman Paul Vallone, the Chair of the Committee on Economic Development, who introduced a bill to start an Office of Interagency Tourism Affairs. “And once we show the world that we got it then you’ll see the tourists follow right behind them.” He says basically tourism will depend on the resilience of New Yorkers, and our ability to open up a changed but still enticing Big Apple.
