Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of New York City, has brought forward the tourist target for New York by three years.
His announcement was in response to the record numbers of tourists visiting the city in the last year. A new record was set in 2007 as more than 46 million tourists visited the city, generating more than £14.4 billion ($28 billion) in revenue and supporting over 370,000 jobs in the city.
The original target, set in 2006, was 50 million annual visitors by 2015, and the new target is to hit the 50 million visitors mark by 2012, three years earlier.
Bloomberg said
“New York City’s tourism sector is booming, with record numbers of visitors coming each of the last five years, even as the number of international visitors to the rest of the nation has declined. That’s why we’re confident we can reach our goal of attracting 50m visitors to the city by 2012, three years ahead of schedule.”
So far, they appear to be on track with the first quarter showing good results for 2008 despite the credit crunch affecting many areas across the world. New York City hotels have sold about 5.4 million room nights in the first quarter, which is approximately 5 percent more than the first quarter of 2007.
Commencing in June this year, British Airways has announced that it will begin an eighteen month project to upgrade the JFK terminal facilities in New York. The project is estimated to cost $30 million (£15.1 million).
The project will incorporate three main areas, which will include:
- Premium check-in pavilion with dedicated drop-off point for particular customers
- Dedicated check-in areas for BA’s Executive Club Silver and Club World schemes
- Renovation of terraces and executive lounges to ensure facilities are of the same standard as those at Heathrow Terminal 5
British Airways says that the new terminal will have environmentally friendly features incorporated, including maximising the usage of natural daylight.
Robin Hayes, British Airways executive vice-president for America, said:
“In a time of rapidly increasing and robust competition, British Airways will now raise the competitive bar far higher than any of its JFK competitors. No other airline at JFK will come close to the standard and quality of what we intend to offer our customers. The new enhancements will place British Airways in the most enviable position to provide the best possible premium ground experience at JFK international airport.”
The new Sex and the City film launch has taken the UK by storm and is apparently the inspiration for an increase in all-female city breaks to the US, in particular to New York.
New York, or the Big Apple, is the most popular US destination and the first port of call for many women, according to a recent survey. Combined with a cheap exchange rate where Brits can currently get around two dollars for every pound, many travel operators have seen an increase in trips to the US. Indeed, the average holiday length to the USA has increased from ten days to fourteen days since the beginning of 2008.
A weak US dollar means bargain holidays to the US, and people are taking advantage of the cheap flight prices internal to the US to combine multiple city breaks in America. The most popular combination with New York currently is Las Vegas, although other popular combinations include Las Vegas and Los Angeles or Las Vegas and San Francisco.
The daily flights from Manchester Airport to the JFK Airport at New York, USA, are the last of the long haul flights outside of London that British Airways still run. However, BA has announced that it is to stop this route.
Apparently, this is a decision that BA has taken without consulting Manchester Airport or discussing ways to save the route. Manchester Airport representatives say that this is a lucrative route and they are in talks with other airlines and are confident that one of them will take over. (more…)
