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New York City's hard-hit hospitality market saw its highest demand level since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.
Just over 481,000 hotel rooms were booked the week of July 12, according to the de Blasio administration. That figure represents an increase of 3.5% from the previous week, Commercial Observer reports.
“We are well on our way to reaching the goals that we had and then exceeding them because people are coming back to New York City,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said at a press conference this week, adding that hotel industry members had told him months ago they were hoping to get to half a million rooms sold each week. “They already know between all the cultural activities that are happening, the cultural and artistic activities, the museums that are open, indoor, outdoor activities, sports is back.”
This week, de Blasio announced a series of concerts will be held in each borough next week to celebrate the city. Last month, NYC & Co. revealed it would run a $30M tourism campaign in an attempt to lure tourists back to the city. Some estimates have suggested tourism numbers will not recover to their record 2019 levels for another four years.
Last month, the de Blasio administration said it was ending a policy that housed homeless people in city hotels in an effort to allow operators to reopen their doors to guests once more. Around 8,000 people will be moved out of 60 hotels by the end of July.
But even amid the optimism surrounding the increasing number of people coming to the city to stay, there are clouds on the horizon. More than 8,000 new rooms are expected to open before the end of 2021. Almost 22,000 are under construction, by far the most in the country, Bisnow reported earlier this month.
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