ITTN’s Shane Cullen interviews Fred Dixon, President & CEO of New York City Tourism + Conventions during their first Business Expo for the Ireland and UK markets in 2024, offering travel trade buyers and media the opportunity to visit NYC for a program of strategic meetings with tourism and hospitality suppliers and to discover new product across the destination’s five boroughs.
New York City Tourism + Conventions Mission
New York City Tourism + Conventions has a mission to maximise travel and tourism opportunities throughout the City, build economic prosperity and spread the dynamic image of NYC around the world.
They run an educational program for members to learn how to work with the travel trade. This is to harness the power of tourism to drive more business to participating members and help members maximise their potential. The company has dedicated travel trade resources at https://www.business.nyctourism.com/travel-trade. To find out more from Fred Dixon and where value lies for Irish travellers, check out ITTN’s interview below:
Welcome Session & Five Borough Marketplace
NYC Tourism + Conventions welcomed ITTN and members of the Irish travel trade at Convene at 810 7th Avenue followed by Five Borough Marketplace at Hard Rock Café, 1501 Broadway, New York.
Annual Visitation for NYC
Last year, NYC saw 62.2 million annual visitors which generated a $74bn positive economic impact and supporting 380 thousand jobs. This is marginally below 2019 figures of 66.6m visitors with 13.5m from overseas. The forecast for NYC visitation is 64.8m for 2024 and 68.1m for 2025, of which 13.3m and 14.7m visitors are international, respectively.
Overwhelmingly, c.81% of visitors in 2023 were leisure (19% business) with this split forecast to continue through to 2025.
Ireland in the Top 15 International Markets
Interestingly, the top 15 international markets are as follows*:
- UK
- Canada
- France
- Brazil
- Italy
- Germany
- Mexico
- Australia
- Spain
- China
- India
- South Korea
- Ireland
- Colombia
- Argentina
*Based on 2023 figures, with China expected to leap to third place in 2024. Source: New York City Tourism + Conventions Economic Forecast March 2024
There are a staggering 3,011 weekly inbound flights from international markets (week of March, 2024) providing 584,045 weekly seats. From Europe alone, this amounts to 833 weekly flights and 209,752 seats.
Hotel Occupancy & Average Daily Rates
At Year End 2023, New York City hotel occupancy was running at 81.6%, a year-on-year (YOY) increase of +10% and the average daily rate was $297 representing a +11% increase compared with the prior year. The start of 2024 has shown growth in terms of both occupancy and average daily rate levels with January and February occupancy at 70.2% (+4% YOY) and the average daily hotel rate at $207 (+4% YOY).
ITTN’s Shane Cullen and members of the Irish travel trade are visiting New York City with New York City Tourism + Conventions in conjunction with airline partner, JetBlue and accommodation partner, Fitzpatrick Hotel Group New York.
For More on the NYC Trip
Stay tuned to ITTN for more updates!
