The city of New York will launch this summer in Mexico his first advertising campaign abroad behind the pandemic of COVID-19 to attract tourists, this within the framework of a 30 million dollar initiative that seeks to revitalize this key sector for the Big Apple.
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“Latin America is supremely important for the tourism in the city (…) For example, if we refer to 2019, I could tell you that about seven Latin American countries were in the ranking of the 30 countries that visited New York the most, ”Adriana Aristizábal, spokesperson for NYC & Company, told EFE. company in charge of promoting tourism in the city.
The plan launched by the city, entitled in Spanish “New York, the moment is now”, has already started at the regional and national level, with which it seeks to revive local tourism, traditionally the most important for the city of skyscrapers, since it represents almost 80% of the total visitors.
However, the city has its sights set beyond its borders and will soon begin a campaign in Mexico, then in Canada and the United Kingdom, which will expand to other markets as the travel restriction that, for example, are still maintained for many countries such as the European Schengen area, where there are important tourist clients such as France, Germany, Spain and Italy.
Beyond Mexico, Aristizábal also highlighted the interest that the city unleashes in Brazil, Colombia, Argentina and Chile, as well as Spain, which topped the list of Spanish-speaking tourists in 2019 with 546,000.
According to company data, 495 thousand mexican tourists They visited New York in the year before the pandemic, in addition to 826,000 Brazilians, 359,000 Argentines, 244,000 Colombians, 79,000 Chileans, and 53,000 Peruvians.
The collapse of tourism in 2020
The hard ones restrictions imposed in New York In March 2019 they caused a global drop in the number of visitors of 67%, from 66.6 million in 2019 to 22.3 million in 2020.
Obviously, the restrictions affected travelers from other countries much more and, thus, of the total of 2 million 250 thousand tourists from Latin America who visited the Big Apple in 2019, less than 80% (433 thousand) came to see its skyscrapers.
In addition, tourism sector income fell about 75%, from $ 80.3 billion in 2019 to $ 20.2 billion last year, according to a report from the state Comptroller’s Office.
A big blow for a sector that, according to 2017 statistics, generated 9% of employment in the city.
Prospects for the future
However, the good pace of vaccination, with 65% of the vaccinated adult population and the fall in the incidence of positivity to 0.5%, encouraged the authorities to lift the vast majority of restrictions imposed to avoid spread of the pandemic and to launch this campaign to attract tourism, at a time when all traditional destinations are struggling to recover.
NYC & Company expects the city to receive 10 million visitors in the summer campaign, which would be six million more than last summer, although still seven and a half million below the 17.5 million who visited the city in the summer of 2019.
Aristizábal explains that the campaign (which employs influencers and has a tourist guide in Spanish) wants to convey that now there is an “opportunity for anyone to come to New York City and experience and be part of a historical moment that we are living, the resurgence and the return of New York ”, says Aristizábal.
The insecurity
But New York was not oblivious to increase in gun violence recorded in many large cities in the United States after the crime outbreak, and the authorities fear that it could affect tourism.
In fact, this same Monday, June 28, after a shooting with a wounded man in the touristy Times Square, the city’s mayor Bill de Blasio promised to increase the police presence in the most touristy areas.
“We cannot allow this to have a negative impact (on tourism). So we are going to be very clear to everyone, we are going to see a lot of police presence and we are going to see how these issues are addressed in a very aggressive way, ”said the mayor during his daily press conference.
Aristizábal, without wanting to delve into the matter, assures that the authorities are already in charge of this issue and insists that the progressive increase in the arrival of tourists is already palpable.
Since the requirement of quarantine for domestic travelersOn April 1, the demand for hotels in the Big Apple increased from 338,367 rooms for the week ending April 3, to 457,568 rooms for the week ending July 19, which is equivalent to a 35% increase.
“People keep traveling, keep making their hotel reservations and he keeps coming because he trusts in what is being done and that he is going to have a good time for relaxation and healthy recreation in the city that never sleeps ”, he concludes.
With information from EFE
GANR
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