Welcome to our 2023 Annual Report.
The story of New York City tourism is one of resilience and tenacity. This report is a record of the creative energy, relentless determination and innovative collaborations that are, once again, returning the tourism and convention industry to reliable growth in visitation, spending, jobs and economic impact.
The numbers bear out the story. Last year saw robust growth in visitor volume, up almost 10 percent from 2022. The forecast for 2024 calls for moderate but healthy growth at 4 percent. Looking further out, indicators point to consumers continuing to prioritize travel spending giving confidence to our projection that 2025 visitation is likely to exceed 68 million for the first time, almost 2 million more than our prior record.
Challenges to this level of growth remain and must be continually monitored and addressed. Ongoing economic pressures, geopolitical tensions and competing destinations factor strongly, but also perceptions of safety and shrinking city contract funds strain resources and reduce marketing reach.
As we continue to navigate these challenges and the road to full tourism recovery, we are guided by our strategic priorities and an enduring commitment to celebrating the rich diversity of the five boroughs as the greatest destination in the world.
One of our greatest advantages is the partnership with you, our members and stakeholders. It is your investment that fuels our programming and enriches our content. It is our promise to continue delivering a robust suite of benefits, insights and sales opportunities to grow your business as your one-stop shop for maximizing tourism impact.
As we look to the exciting year ahead and major events like America250 and FIFA World Cup 26, we are more grateful than ever for your engagement and support.
Charles Flateman
Chairman
New York City Tourism + Conventions
Executive Vice President
The Shubert Organization
Fred Dixon
President and CEO
New York City Tourism + Conventions
New York City’s tourism and convention industry performance was marked by steady recovery patterns across all sectors—day and overnight, domestic and international, as well as leisure and business travel.
Strong fundamentals sustain travel to New York City in 2023 and lay the groundwork for continued growth.
By the end of 2023, overall visitation had reached 93% of 2019 benchmark levels. Monthly visitor trends returned to typical seasonal patterns, rising from the winter doldrums of January, warming up in spring and summer, and then taking off with the return to school, work and shoulder-season travel from September through December 31. The final numbers for 2023 reached 62.2 million visitors—11.6 million international and 50.6 domestic. This was a 9.6% increase over 2022 levels, driven by the strong return of international travel (up 23%). The domestic day-trip market was a key driver of success at 24.6 million, while overnight reached 25.9 million.
The City and the travel industry have moved past the worst effects of the pandemic. Despite tremendous progress, full recovery is just out of reach.
Over the past three years, we have witnessed key market segments pacing at different rates. First to recover was the domestic market accounting for the largest share of visitors and reaching 95% of 2019 benchmark levels. This activity was supported in each of the past three years by the leisure travel market pulled back into the City by the dynamic activity in places to dine, shop, eat, explore and stay. International travel has seen mixed results across the more than 20 origin markets that keep New York City the largest international destination in the US. The rapid recovery rates each year since 2020 have brought the international market back to 86% of benchmark. The business travel market, typically accounting for over 20% of the market, is also continuing to pull back up to 2019 levels.
With the most global mix of international markets, New York City is pacing back to record levels of visitation.
Looking at the top 10 inbound markets provided solid evidence of how international travelers are drawn to New York City. Between 2022 and 2023, visitation saw increases across all world regions. Canada and Mexico together grew by 42% year over year, reaching 98% of pre-pandemic levels. The overseas markets continued to grow, up 21% compared to last year and reaching 86% of overall benchmark levels. The UK remains in top position with more than 1 million visitors. European markets including France, Italy, Germany and Spain benefited from regular and direct air routes into our three international airports bringing in over 2.3 million visitors combined. The Asia-Pacific region highlighted Australia and China staying in the top tier. From Latin America, Brazil remained the most dynamic source market.
Overnight visitors to New York City are driving strong hotel room demand and high room rates.
Hotel performance continues to improve each year since the 2020 pandemic disruptions. Domestic leisure visitation has recovered most quickly across all five boroughs and classes of hotel service. Transient and group business events began to push demand and rates up during the spring and fall activity periods. Overall performance, however, reflects the slower recovery of longer staying international travelers from APAC and LATAM regions. Visitor accommodations in hotels averaged over 120,000 rooms in active inventory throughout the year (rooms used for shelter/emergency uses are not included in these calculations). By year-end, room nights sold (demand) had reached 36.1 million, a 7% year-over-year increase. Citywide occupancy rates averaged 81.6%, 10% above 2022, but still below 2019 record levels. Following national trends, the average daily rate (ADR) pulled ahead of pre-pandemic levels and continued the year-over-year increases.
Through innovative branding strategies and an unwavering commitment to showcasing NYC’s dynamism and diversity, we promoted the five boroughs as the world’s most aspirational and welcoming destination.
As of March 2023, we are New York City Tourism + Conventions. The introduction of our new name and brand system marks a significant moment for our organization. With our new brand, we aim to capture the essence of New York City in its entirety: an ever-expansive destination that offers diverse and authentic experiences that enrich the traveler and benefit all New Yorkers. This shift strategically positions us to continue leading the City’s nearly $65 billion tourism economy. It makes clear our purpose and mission as the official tourism organization for one of the world’s greatest destinations—our commitment to New York City has never been greater.
We launched digital media campaigns to help build awareness of our new name and branding. We also created a new welcome video to drive leisure visitation along with a new video targeted at business event planners, which features those planners describing why NYC is the ideal destination to host events. The videos capture the essence of “What’s Good in NYC” and have been well received in our events and speaking engagements.
The new NYCtourism.com website debuted in June with a refreshed look, bringing the new brand fully to life and providing a more intuitive experience for users, while still housing all the information visitors and our business audiences need to experience the best of the five boroughs. To spread awareness of the new site, we deployed out-of-home media (printed and digital bus shelters and LinkNYC screens) targeting locals and in-market visitors as well as a digital campaign (activating social media, account-based marketing, native display and outstream video) to reach B2B audiences to boost membership growth, convention and event bookings, tourism development inquiries and newsletter sign-ups.
Our teams work constantly to inspire and inform potential visitors about the unique appeal of NYC as a destination.
Our marketing ecosystem, anchored by our new website, serves as the central hub for travelers, locals and businesses seeking to explore the vibrant offerings of New York City. Our website emphasizes a user-centric approach, leveraging partnerships with leading travel marketing platforms and enhancing engagement with tools like QR codes, itineraries, video and other immersive content.
Our email marketing program prioritizes subscriber engagement, sharing tailored messages for our various audiences. Our social media presence includes multiple platforms: Instagram, Facebook, X, TikTok, WeChat and Weibo for leisure travelers and LinkedIn for business audiences.
NYC Tourism + Conventions also makes use of our substantial out-of-home media inventory through JCDecaux and Intersection to advertise vibrancy programs, amplify content and promote our partnerships.
Content shared through our channels reinforces our commitment to celebrating New York City’s richness and diversity, ensuring a compelling presence in the digital landscape.
Our Webby Award–winning culinary content offering, Savor NYCSM, is updated monthly, along with a bimonthly feature on our social channels. Now our evergreen dining platform, Savor NYC focuses attention on the City's incredible dining scene to firmly reinforce NYC’s reputation as the dining capital of the world. The platform is an all-encompassing resource for locals and visitors, providing themes that highlight distinct cuisines, multicultural neighborhoods, seasonal dining and culinary offers. Savor NYC also showcases major citywide events and holidays through a culinary lens.
Each month, the initiative receives promotion through owned, paid and earned media—including our website, social channels, email newsletters and LinkNYC screens. To date, the Savor NYC landing page on NYCtourism.com has earned over 270,000 unique page views.
Our retail hub, Shopping in NYC, is updated quarterly and supported by long-form retail social videos featured bimonthly on our channels. Our team published several articles in support of this category, including “Immerse Yourself in the Luxury of Madison Avenue,” which invites readers to explore and shop the tony Upper East Side enclave; “Your Ultimate Guide to Holiday Shopping,” sponsored by Starbucks, featuring suggestions on the best locations across the City to purchase seasonal gifts; and a refresh of “25 Essential Soho Shops,” consistently one of our website’s best-performing pieces of content.
In the meantime, our dedicated retail social coverage highlighted a wide swath of venues, including The Museum of Broadway Shop, The Shops at Rockefeller Center and holiday window displays of iconic retailers like Bloomingdale’s, Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue and Macy’s. Posts across Instagram, Facebook, X and YouTube were focused on promoting shopping and retail, netting 361,000 impressions and 13.2 million engagements.
Arts and culture institutions and events across the five boroughs receive promotion through our quarterly guide, featuring prominent placement on our site and in social, as well as in our consumer- and business-facing newsletters. Each offers a variety of seasonal highlights, promoting the incredible depth and diversity of the City’s cultural milieu. Among the many institutions and organizations we covered this year were the Brooklyn Museum for their Spike Lee retrospective; artist Michael Richards’ show at the Bronx Museum; the New York Philharmonic; a performance by the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater; the Barkley Hendricks exhibition at the Frick Madison; costumes from the musical Six at The Museum of Broadway; and work from the show by artist Leslie Martinez at MoMA PS1. The Fall 2023 edition garnered 194,000 impressions and nearly 4,000 engagements alone.
We created an incredible array of content in support of the citywide celebrations of the 50th anniversary of hip-hop. That content now lives on the evergreen hip-hop hub on our website, serving as a resource for NYC visitors interested in exploring all aspects of the culture. The hub showcases inspirational stories, guides to hip-hop–themed small businesses, murals, interviews with notable figures and an interactive map with touchpoints to experience hip-hop culture across all five boroughs. Among our most important features are comprehensive guides to hip-hop history across the City; highlights of important moments in hip-hop from The Apollo Theater in Harlem; and interviews with Ralph McDaniels of Video Music Box, Debra Harris of Hush Hip Hop Tours and Rocky Bucano of The Hip Hop Museum.
In addition, the team created a stunning printed map, promoted on over 150 bus shelters across the City, featuring the names of artists and places that helped shape and promote the movement. The team also inked a partnership with NYC radio celebrity Angie Martinez. We conducted our first-ever Instagram Live interview with her, and she recorded ads promoting the hip-hop hub on NYCtourism.com, distributed over Spotify. So far, the promotion has resulted in well over 100,000 unique page views.
Our It’s Time for CultureSM campaign, which ran in May 2023, supported the cultural community by showcasing unique value-added opportunities for arts lovers during one of the City’s prime moments on the cultural calendar. The program featured 103 events across 82 participants, and coincided with the International Contemporary Furniture Fair, Frieze New York and NYCxDesign, offering a robust set of options for cultural visitors. It’s Time for Culture was promoted via NYCtourism.com, organic social media posts, a press release and targeted pitching, email newsletters, print and digital bus shelters, and LinkNYC screens. Paid media included ads on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, CTV, native display and SEM. In total, the program drove 115,000 landing page visits, delivered 62 million impressions on our out-of-home ads (valued at $578,000) and 7.5 million impressions for our digital paid media.
Like all of our content-driven initiatives, this ongoing series is published and promoted across both our web and social channels. As part of our mission to support NYC hotels and inspire visitation, #CheckInNYC covers a wide variety of the City’s accommodations, highlighting various hotel options, amenities, neighborhoods, new and renovated properties and only-in-New-York experiences that visitors can enjoy on a seasonal basis. Holiday- and NYC Winter Outing–themed content performed notably well. Over our social channels alone, the series has earned nearly 500,000 impressions and a 4.2% engagement rate—more than 2.5% higher than our average.
The team’s always-on efforts include a wealth of articles, posts and promotions that address our constituent audiences, aimed at inspiring potential travelers from diverse backgrounds to visit NYC. Each of these receives promotion through owned and paid media, including via our website, over our social channels and in our email newsletters.
In honor of U.S. Travel’s National Travel and Tourism Week, we compiled a list of six unmissable walking tours across the five boroughs to highlight in a media campaign that included a roundup article on NYCtourism.com, a social media series on Instagram and a weeklong LinkNYC flight. The tours included in the campaign reflect the diversity of NYC, covering Black arts and culture in Harlem, the global flavors of Astoria, the rich history of Mott Haven, sustainable eateries and shops in Williamsburg, the living history of Richmond Town in Staten Island and the Chassidic Jewish community of Crown Heights. We highlighted the Guides Association of New York City throughout the campaign as a resource to find guides who specialize in a range of tours across the five boroughs.
Broadway and Off-Broadway productions, attractions and arts organizations of all types also receive ongoing coverage on our channels, in addition to dedicated promotion in our vibrancy campaigns.
In 2023, we conducted two editions each of NYC Broadway WeekSM, NYC Off-Broadway WeekSM and NYC Restaurant Week®, complemented by the return of NYC Hotel WeekSM and NYC Must-See WeekSM, which are part of our expansive NYC Winter OutingSM program. Over 800 organizations participated in the NYC Winter Outing 2024 programs—a record. Member businesses were very active in promoting the program on email and social media posts, which we further amplified across all NYC Tourism + Conventions channels.
Our hallmark vibrancy initiatives support our members by increasing shoulder-season demand, offering visitors and locals the opportunity to enjoy experiences at an attractive price point during traditionally slow periods across hotels, restaurants, Broadway productions, Off-Broadway shows, museums, cultural institutions, attractions and tours.
NYC Tourism + Conventions social published 140 organic posts throughout the NYC Winter Outing 2024 messaging cycle (Nov 14–Feb 4), earning 3.2 million impressions and 20,200 engagements.
Eighty-seven members participated in aggregate in our “Social Splash” campaigns dedicated to each program. In addition, 35 restaurants were nominated in our first-ever “Best Menu Award,” with many spots actively participating on their social channels to get out the vote.
In 2024, the campaign creative for all programs was updated to incorporate our new brand design and creative system.
Our strategic partnerships with a diverse array of organizations assist us in promoting NYC to potential travelers from around the world while nurturing a deeper appreciation for the City's rich experiences.
Each of our partnerships showcase the breadth of activities available in the five boroughs, providing incremental support to our member businesses. Promoting cultural celebrations, sporting events and performing arts and working alongside travel and culinary institutions allows us to expand our audiences and the reach of our content.
NYC Tourism + Conventions enables partners to promote their event or project through our digital and out-of-home marketing channels in exchange for providing equal exposure for our content through the partner’s website, newsletters and events.
Monsoon Wedding is a stage musical adaptation of the acclaimed 2001 film of the same name, directed by Mira Nair. Telling the story of an Indian family as they prepare for a lavish wedding ceremony in Delhi, the cast and crew all represented the South Asian diaspora.
NYC Tourism + Conventions partnered with St. Ann’s Warehouse to boost our Asian and South Asian content by including our South Asian guides, itineraries and content in their dedicated emails, ticket confirmation emails and social media posts.
This past summer celebrated the 25th anniversary of Sex and the City and the second season of Max’s spinoff And Just Like That. NYC Tourism + Conventions partnered with the franchise to celebrate this moment by coordinating lighting displays at the Empire State Building, Javits Center, One Bryant Park, One World Trade Center and Pier 17 in exchange for promotion in Max’s owned channels.
Our brand and partnership was mentioned in the show’s official media release. Our shopping guides were featured on their social accounts, and they shared illuminated building images, tagging @nyctourism and the participating buildings. Additionally, our team participated in the Empire State Building lighting ceremony alongside actress Sarah Jessica Parker, confirming our role in enhancing the City’s tourism and cultural appeal.
The Life of Pi featured NYC Tourism + Conventions as a partner of the show on their website and drove to our Asian Experience content hub through dedicated social media posts, post-trip emails and inclusion on their website. In turn, the Life of Pi was promoted in our B2C newsletter content during AAPI Heritage Month in May.
BroadwayCon is an annual convention that brings together theater fans, professionals and performers to celebrate the world of Broadway. The event provides a unique opportunity for fans to connect with each other and with the Broadway community while celebrating their love for theater.
We partnered with BroadwayCon to amplify our outreach for NYC Broadway Week. We delivered 1 million LinkNYC screen impressions, an event listing on our official website and social media support in exchange for a sponsorship logo inclusion, a dedicated digital screen amplifying NYC Broadway Week, social media promotion of our messaging and a dedicated post-conference email to attendees highlighting the program.
The Chelsea Film Festival returned to NYC this year with a celebration of New York City’s cultural and cinematic landscape. They hosted the world premiere of our Local Legends film series, followed by a panel featuring our SVP of Content and DiversityInitiatives, Rondel Holder. This 11th anniversary of the Chelsea Film Festival had over 2,500+ submissions. Local Legends was one of 18 Indie Episodic films shown at this festival that garnered a 10,000 in-person attendance.
We marketed this festival with 2 million LinkNYC impressions, an event listing on NYCtourism.com and a presence in NYC Tourism + Conventions’ Fall Guide in exchange for a screening of our Local Legends series at the festival, logo inclusion in event communications and banner ads in event emails.
We continued our partnership of the New York Comedy Festival by promoting the festival on LinkNYC screens, social media and in our consumer newsletters in exchange for promotion of our comedy guide through the festival's email channels. Our video content was also aired in the event venues.
Already a partner for our Hip-Hop in NYC content hub, NYC Tourism + Conventions partnered with Mass Appeal—already a partner for our Hip-Hop in NYC content hub—for the SummerStage Park Jams event on June19, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the genre as well as Juneteenth. The event took place at Rumsey Playfield in Central Park and featured performances by renowned hip-hop artists such as DJ Premier, Grandmaster Flash and Kid Capri, among others.
We provided support for the event with out-of-home placements, social amplification, paid digital media and an event listing on our website. In return, we received partnership designation, logo presence on screens during the event, a dedicated call-out at the event, and access to tickets and VIP privileges. We also licensed our NYC Parks mark in celebration of hip-hop starting in a park to develop merchandise that was sold at the event and online.
NYC Tourism + Conventions partnered with the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame for its Induction Ceremony on November 3 at Barclays Center. The event was also featured in our Hip Hop 50 campaign as it honored DJ Kool Herc, a pioneering figure in the foundation of hip-hop.
We provided an event listing, paid social amplification, inclusion on LinkNYC screens and Taxi TV inventory and email newsletter inclusion in exchange for an ad in the digital program for the event, an email and social post promoting our hip-hop content to their membership, and logo inclusion in the credits on the Disney+ stream of the event.
This exchange served as a fitting conclusion to our yearlong celebration of hip-hop, reinforcing NYC’s stature as a city that embraces and champions diverse musical legacies.
NYC Tourism + Conventions partnered with the James Beard Foundation and Queens Night Market to promote an exciting culinary event at the newly opened Pier 57 dining venue operated by the James Beard Foundation. As part of the AAPI Heritage Month celebration, Queens Night Market hosted a special evening at Platform by JBF. We supported the event via an event listing, social media promotion and inviting community members featured in our Asian Experience content.
We partnered with City Hall’s Public Design Commission and Black Gotham Experience (BGX) on the promotion and rollout of BGX’s short film, Epicenter. The film covers the history of NYC’s City Hall through the lens of the experiences of Black New Yorkers and debuted in February in commemoration of Black History Month. We promoted the film on LinkNYC screens and in email and social posts in exchange for attribution in the film and in social posts promoting the film, as well as rights and clearances to share a cutdown of the film in our social channels.
This annual festival celebrates the rich history and culture of Harlem through in-person and virtual events. Ahead of the event’s 50th anniversary in 2024, we once again supported the program with social and editorial content in exchange for sponsor designation.
Our collaboration with Diwali on the Hudson, in partnership with the Desai Foundation, marked a significant milestone as we joined forces for their 10th-year capstone event celebrating Diwali in NYC. This occasion marked the first-ever celebration of Diwali as a public-school holiday in the City. We gained valuable exposure by sharing our South Asian Guide on social channels owned by Diwali on the Hudson.
In celebration of the largest annual sporting event in NYC, we partnered with the United States Tennis Association (USTA) to promote the US Open on our homepage and in our summer guide, as well as with influencer and social coverage during Fan Week. In return, the USTA promoted our site on USOpen.org, included our banner ad in their Insider email newsletter and aired our 30-second destination video to their audience of 500,000 tennis fans.
We continued our partnership with New York Road Runners (NYRR) with promotion of the TCS NYC Marathon. NYRR promoted our marathon viewing guide across their owned channels, including push notifications via their app, email inclusions and within their social media posts.
This year’s marathon saw 51,453 runners from across 131 countries reach the finish line. The marathon app was downloaded 480,000 times and had a social media following of 859,000.
In turn, we promoted the NYRR New Year’s Eve Midnight Run, adding the event to our website’s event listings and showcasing it on targeted social media posts.
The JP Morgan Tournament of Champions is a professional squash tournament that features the world’s best squash players. Held January 18–25, this year marked the 26th year of the tournament at Grand Central Terminal.
NYC Tourism + Conventions provided several assets to the tournament, including a custom restaurant guide around Grand Central, access to our Delegate Pass, a welcome letter from the Mayor and video assets shown at City Winery, where the watch party took place. The tournament included our logo and links to NYCtourism.com in newsletters and social media posts and promoted the Delegate Pass to their attendees.
FIFA recently announced MetLife Stadium as one of the host venues for soccer matches for the CONMEBOL Copa America 2024, which will be promoted through NYC Tourism + Conventions social channels. Matches include Chile vs Argentina (June 25), Uruguay vs Bolivia (June 27) and the semifinal match (July 9).
Looking to the FIFA World Cup 26™, New York/New Jersey was awarded the final match on July 19, 2026, along with seven other matches, cementing our region as the most important stage for the world’s biggest events.
On October 5, Kayak and Priceline invited NYC Tourism + Conventions to create an engaging familiarization trip for 100 airline partners who were brought to NYC in celebration of the airline community. In return, we received prominent exposure throughout the event and the opportunity to present to the participants.
NYC Tourism + Conventions aligns with many organizations to reach audiences, featuring the City’s unique character in a variety of goods from well-known brands.
In 2023, we entered our ninth year of partnership with the iconic New YorkCity brand Only NY. They continually reinvent and promote the NYC Parks, TheCity of New York Department of Sanitation (DSNY) and NYC marks, keeping consumers interested in quintessentially New York City brands and institutions.We are excited to work on a partnership to highlight their 10th year as a licensee in 2025.
The collaboration between NYC Tourism + Conventions and Mass Appeal in Q3 enhanced the impact of the Hip Hop 50 celebration. Through this partnership, we successfully extended licensing rights for the NYC Parks and “Made in NYC” marks. This move enabled the production of exclusive apparel items, aligning with our business objectives and showcasing the City’s hip-hop culture. These products sold out during the Park Jams events as well as Hip Hop 50 Live at Yankee Stadium. They continue to be featured on Mass Appeal’s website and contribute to our broader goal of promoting New York City's cultural richness on a global scale.
In Q4, we partnered with NYC streetwear apparel brand TIER to launch an exclusive capsule collection featuring our new logo. The partnership marks the first of its kind for NYC Tourism + Conventions since the organization rebranded. The limited travel capsule collection, which features an interpretation of New York City’s new logo, brand identity and color palette, comprises hoodies, sweatpants, socks and baseball hats. The collection was promoted through our owned channels, out-of-home placements and social media channels.
The partnership also included a love letter to NYC by TIER founder Nigeria Ealey. Shared on NYCtourism.com, this collaboration was also featured in Complex, Essence and Travel and Tour World.
NYC Tourism + Conventions focuses efforts on attracting both leisure and business travel. By showcasing NYC as the world’s foremost destination for business events, engaging with the travel trade, generating positive press and empowering member success, we help the City maintain its allure on the global stage.
Since their hiatus during the height of the pandemic, we have now fully restored our network of 17 international in-market representative agencies doing important work on the ground to build visitation and promote our members across 26 countries. These representatives sell our destination to top leisure travel trade, business event organizers and local media outlets throughout their regions.
The teams’ efforts in these markets have resulted in a steady increase in lead generation and bookings for all manner of business events, such as meetings and incentive trips. Some markets are offering standout results. Brazil and Mexico are leading the incentives market from the financial, automotive, retail and pharmaceutical sectors, with short booking windows of 30 to 120 days. NYC has also secured hosting rights for various incentives from Singapore, Thailand and Australia, with potential interest from Malaysia and Indonesia for events in May and September. Canada, the United Kingdom, France and Western Europe are pivotal markets for corporate events and meetings, and leads from these regions, particularly in the technology, financial and insurance sectors, will be an important focus for our team through 2026.
This robust sales activity in market, together with our award-winning tourism campaign, kept NYC and our members front of mind for travel audiences around the world. The 2022–2023 iteration of our global marketing campaign, which had 16 distinct market executions that featured travel partners, drove more than 1 billion ad impressions and 1.7 million trips. The campaign was refreshed for 2023–2024, once again featuring Lady Liberty as the ultimate icon of our great city, beckoning potential travelers to NYC. Out-of-home advertisements and media placements launched in January for the latest iteration and will continue to run through 2024.
The Convention Development team remains focused on returning group business to NYC, engaging meeting planners at trade shows and sales missions, and promoting NYC in major markets at home and abroad.
Our Marketing team supports these efforts with media buys that amplify team activities, resulting in over 6 million ad impressions. We also produced a dedicated video for this audience to reinforce the message that NYC is where successful meetings happen.
Here at home, our Destination Services team supports meetings and events throughout the year, including major annual shows hosted in the five boroughs each year like the National Retail Federation, New York Toy Fair and Comic Con. In total, business events bring nearly 6 million visitors to the City, boosting business not just for hotels but restaurants, attractions and service providers as well. This year the team revamped the Destination Services tool kit, which contains several complimentary resources for business event professionals to assist in their planning and to help promote their events in NYC.
Engaging the travel trade to drive leisure business is a major focus for our team. We showcase NYC and our members by hosting familiarization trips for top product managers and top-selling travel agents, leading sales missions (in over 12 major international markets in 2023), targeting high-value market segments (like luxury and long stays) and by providing educational and business development opportunities for trade and members.
The New York City Travel Trade Academy (TTA) was relaunched in Q2 of 2023, educating the travel trade on how to package and sell the five boroughs to potential visitors. The content is now available in 10 languages: German, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, Italian, French, Chinese, Hindi and English.
Our Tourism Development team also curates unforgettable experiences for niche market segments. For the luxury segment, the team fosters partnerships with industry-leading associations like Serandipians and Virtuoso, and attends key luxury trade shows like ILTM. A partnership with IGLTA also elevates New York City's profile within the LGBTQ+ travel community, highlighting tailored programs and resources for this market.
Efforts to welcome Muslim travelers have been well received by the trade in the Middle East and Southeast Asia market, including promotion of the NYC Halal Travel Guide, the ability to filter restaurants to find halal offerings on our website and dedicated Muslim traveler-friendly content on NYCtourism.com.
We are also committed to specifically engaging and welcoming the growing Black travel market by participating in the Black Travel Summit and successfully hosting our inaugural Black travel familiarization trip in February 2024.
The City is preparing to host the 2024 Student & Youth Travel Association’s (SYTA) conference this coming August. This is a terrific opportunity to reinforce NYC’s status as the most popular student and youth destination in North America.
NYC Tourism + Conventions is hosting several business expos and reverse sales missions in the City. Members can connect with international buyers locally, saving them time and travel expenses. The travel trade and media representatives also get to discover the five boroughs in person and learn about new services, experiences and travel products across the City.
In February 2024, NYC Tourism + Conventions executed two reverse sales missions and business expos, welcoming 40-plus clients from Germany, Switzerland, Austria, the Netherlands, Spain and Mexico. The team is planning more reverse sales missions and business expos later in the year with buyers from Ireland, the United Kingdom (March 25–29), France and Italy (June 16–20) and South America (August 19–23).
The Global Communications Team is constantly working to position New York City as a premier destination for leisure and business travel worldwide, evidenced by the more than 13,000 media stories they were able to affect, influence or place in 2023. Some of the year’s top themes targeted the rebound of international and business travel, a citywide celebration of hip-hop’s 50th anniversary, ways to visit NYC affordably and shoulder-season promotions showcasing our vibrancy programs featuring the hotel, restaurant, theater, attractions and arts sectors.
In addition, the Global Communications team maintains a comprehensive crisis communications strategy at all times, which includes close coordination with city agencies, members, partners and stakeholders to coordinate and disseminate information relevant to the tourism industry during emergencies including weather-related situations.
Media relations outreach engaged approximately 900 journalists in target feeder markets to develop highly individualized stories that speak to New York City’s diverse visitor mix. Efforts included the Visiting Media program, which hosted over 260 group and individual visits, composed of site visits, tours and hotel stays across all five boroughs, supported by our members and partners. Our more than two dozen What's New media briefings in 10 markets provided a broad update on major events, programs, and openings citywide as a source of inspiration for future stories.
Global media coverage of New York City illustrates the breadth, depth and value of a visit, drives urgency to visit and reinforces the importance of tourism as a major economic driver that benefits all New Yorkers.
We are committed to promoting sustainable tourism, cultural enrichment and economic empowerment. Through strategic partnerships, fundraising initiatives and support programs, NYC Tourism + Conventions fosters an ecosystem where local businesses flourish, neighborhoods thrive and diversity is celebrated.
With our extensive public transportation network and density, NYC is an excellent choice for travelers mindful of sustainability. To support industry efforts to become more sustainable, we are proud to be a member of U.S. Travel’s Sustainability Committee and have ongoing partnerships with Climate Week NYC: The Nest Climate Campus, the World Travel & Tourism Council and The Climate Group. Our editorial team also publishes content on sustainability topics for both our consumer and business audiences.
The breadth of the arts and culture scene across the five boroughs is one of the greatest strengths and advantages of our destination. Building awareness of these offerings is an ongoing commitment and supporting the wide variety of small but burgeoning nonprofit arts and cultural organizations that distinguish our city from others is another important tactic.
We raise funds through our charitable arm, the New York City Tourism Foundation, to provide grants to local nonprofit, arts and cultural organizations for their own tourism and marketing efforts to build audience and awareness. The Foundation’s primary source of funding is our annual gala, held in December, where we honor industry leaders that have made a lasting impact. The 2023 edition raised over $600,000. Last summer we added a more casual and accessible fundraising event called Summer Soiree. Both of these events will return in 2024.
NYC Tourism + Conventions’ 1,800+ members have access to a suite of business-building tools and resources. Our Membership and Events teams organize webinars detailing ways to reach consumers, travel trade and business event planners. In-person events like the annual meeting, business card exchanges and executive mixers foster professional connections with fellow members.
Our Events team shares regular opportunities for members to join the Convention and Tourism Development teams at trade shows and sales missions, and members can work with us to be showcased in familiarization trips and site inspections.
We host regular webinars, our Member Talks, which cover topics from accessibility to gender-expansive hospitality training. Last year, we created a series of educational webinars called Meet the Market to educate our members on specific market segments and international regions, which also served to drive interest in joining a sales mission or deep engagement. The team hosted nine Meet the Market sessions the past year, a cross departmental effort between Membership, Events, Tourism Development and international office representatives. Markets and travel segments covered included Asia, Latin America, Northern Europe, Southern Europe, Australia/New Zealand, Canada, student travel and Black travel. Nearly 100 members went on to engage for the first time in sales missions, familiarization trips and trade shows after attending a session.
The Small Business Members Scholarship Program, now in its second year, is designed to provide qualified small businesses and cultural organizations with the necessary support and opportunity to participate in international sales missions and reverse sales missions with NYC Tourism + Conventions while sharing the true diversity of NYC experiences with the global trade. Following a comprehensive evaluation process, nine members were awarded the 2024 small business and cultural trade engagement scholarships.
Additionally, through the membership portal of NYCtourism.com, members can access up-to-date market profiles and travel trend insights. Our Research team works on monthly updates to the New York City Tourism Barometer, also available to members providing information on visitor activities and spending, plus data on hotel performance, flight capacities, jobs and other helpful data. The Trend Report, published yearly each fall, provides additional detailed insights including visitation forecasts, hotel performance, traveler sentiment and global market updates.
New York City’s variety of experiences is unmatched—a quality reflected in our members and their contributions to the City’s rich diversity. Through content on our website, social media campaigns, virtual education sessions and award-winning videos like our NYC Local Legends series, we uplift NYC’s multicultural communities to spread tourism’s economic benefits, connecting locals and visitors to the experiences that give the City its unique character.
Our Tourism Ready program provides no-cost, valuable educational programming to the business community across the five boroughs on how to work with the travel trade to expand business opportunities. Through a series of free sessions, hospitality businesses learn to attract and manage group travel. These sessions also help expand tour operators’ offerings—encouraging repeat visitation and deeper exploration of the City’s neighborhoods, resulting in greater equity in tourism and economic impact.
NYC Tourism + Conventions staff and members regularly participate in educational sessions and in-person experiences, learning about topics like LGBTQ+ and gender, land acknowledgements with the Lenape Center, Hispanic heritage, Diwali, accessibility, Black history and more.
In the year ahead, our work promoting the greatest city in the world will be driven by our core mission following four priority focus areas.
We will continue to promote the vibrancy of all that NYC has to offer in a meaningful, consistent way across all of our channels, helping to keep our destination continually top of mind for travelers and prospective travelers around the world.
Our Global Communications team will continue to work with key media outlets and influencers both locally and internationally to drive immediacy and demand, focusing on product and destination updates and promoting a positive image of NYC around the world. These updates will continue to stress not only all the can’t-miss seasonal developments and openings the City has to offer but also the new shows, restaurants, exhibitions and attractions that continue to provide a multitude of reasons to visit the five boroughs now—reinforcing that NYC is one of the most robust and diverse destinations in the world. We will also focus on promoting value and family-friendly ways to experience the City across all sectors in response to the economic challenges facing many of our key feeder markets while continuing to uplift opportunities that appeal to luxury or affluent travelers, again demonstrating the diversity of experiences available in NYC.
Our social channels will continue to feature always-on content showcasing the exciting array of happenings in NYC at any given moment as well as ongoing content that supports each of our membership sectors. In addition to our internal team of experts, this content is developed by our award-winning Creator Squad, representing outstanding local voices across the categories of food, hotels, shopping, Broadway, culture and more. We will continue to showcase local businesses of all sizes, as well as community leaders and business owners across the five boroughs, to help promote neighborhood exploration and cultural diversity.
Our Global Communications and Social Media teams will continue to support our signature marketing initiatives, including our vibrancy campaigns, to help drive traffic and sales to the hundreds of participating member businesses.
Alongside this work, our ongoing content initiatives will continue to showcase the diverse cultural fabric of our destination, inclusive of our seasonal guides and content platforms such as The Asian Experience in NYC, The Black Experience in NYC and The Latino Experience in NYC. These platforms showcase small businesses throughout the five boroughs, helping drive curiosity and exploration, and provide ample inspiration for visitors to return. They also appeal to first-timers eager for authentic cultural experiences to pair with visits to iconic sites.
Our Marketing and Tourism teams are also focused on deeper audience development across key segments, such as luxury, Black travel and LGBTQ+. Our new luxury strategy includes refreshed content on our B2C site as well as a new B2B section exclusively for the luxury travel trade, featuring a specially curated selection of luxury product, resources and guides. We will also create a Luxury Travel Trade Council to create tighter connections with the luxury trade, ensuring they have ongoing product updates and that our organization has the latest insights into this impactful segment. Additionally, we will build on the success of our first Black Travel FAM that cut across our Tourism Development, Global Communications and Convention Sales teams, bringing leaders in Black media, leisure travel and business events into the City for an immersive destination experience. We will continue our engagement with the LGBTQ+ community, focusing our consumer messaging on NYC as a safe, welcoming destination, particularly as we ramp up to WorldPride in Washington, DC, in 2025, looking toward creating visitors’ pre- and/or post-event experiences.
Our focus on student and youth travel has never been more important. We will host the 2024 Student and Youth Travel Association (SYTA) conference this August and will continue to focus on value and family-friendly travel moving forward. Other highlights include our partnership with the film Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire this March and a wealth of forthcoming content features about the City’s historic sites as we look forward to the 400th anniversary of the founding of NYC in 2025 and the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States in 2026.
Our marketing campaigns will continue to center around two primary tranches: vibrancy campaigns designed to support our member businesses during key need periods, and our global tourism campaign designed to drive direct bookings to NYC through partnerships with airlines and tour operators around the world.
Our vibrancy campaigns comprise NYC Restaurant Week, NYC Broadway Week, NYC Must-See Week, NYC Off-Broadway Week and NYC Hotel Week. These programs will continue under the NYC Winter Outing umbrella in January/February, providing more incentive to drive overnight visitation during our most critical needs period. We will continue to strive for more participation in these programs across all five boroughs to help support as many businesses as possible through the outreach efforts of our Membership and Government Affairs teams. We will also build on our support of those businesses with a suite of tools, including social media campaigns and menu-engineering tips to help them achieve as much success as possible. Further, we will continue to secure airline and rail partners to support the program, as well as the assistance of other brands that can help increase promotional reach and awareness.
We will repeat our iconic NYC Restaurant Week program in July/August, as well as NYC Broadway Week and NYC Off-Broadway Week in the fall. And thanks to the invaluable support of our partner Bloomberg Connects, we will once again launch our It’s Time for Culture program this October, designed to provide a moment in the spotlight for our participating cultural members and give culture-lovers around the world a powerful reason to visit NYC at that time of year.
We will continue our global tourism campaign, designed to drive direct travel bookings in our key feeder markets through the support of impactful airline and tour operator partnerships. We will develop refreshed creative that continues to iterate on the wildly popular Lady Liberty, leveraging key learnings from our 2023 SMARI results, proving that this imagery resonates with consumers at home and abroad. Our goal will be to continue spreading this effort across as many markets as possible, leveraging our international out-of-home media, courtesy of our partnership with JCDecaux, as well as digital media where possible and across key owned channels.
Augmenting these efforts, our Tourism Development team will continue to work with the travel trade to train them on the latest developments in the City to promote a rich, five-borough product offering. They will continue connecting our members to the trade at key trade shows throughout the year, with a renewed effort on Reverse Sales Missions and Business Expos in tandem with our Global Communications and Convention Sales teams. This will allow us to bring more critical players into the market to experience NYC firsthand and engage with a wider variety of our member businesses.
Our Convention Sales team will remain steadfast in its focus on bringing in big events of all sizes to NYC from around the world. The team plans to meet and exceed its room-night goals, continuing to grow our current and new relationships with clients both domestically and internationally to bring events to the City and confirm definite hotel room nights for our members.
As part of this effort, the team will streamline trade show participation and increase participation in regional and national industry activities to best connect with business event professionals on the ground and encourage them to bring their next event to NYC.
In partnership with the Creative/Content and Marketing teams, Convention Sales will update and expand its suite of marketing collateral and sales tools, as well as its ongoing B2B advertising campaigns, which is designed to drive lead generation and traffic to our Meeting Planner website for continued engagement. The team will also continue to grow its partnerships with key industry associations to keep NYC top of mind as a business event destination unlike any other in the world.
We will continue to develop new and enhanced opportunities for deeper engagement with our member businesses to help drive sales and awareness. First, we will maintain a regular cadence of Business Card Exchanges across the five boroughs to create ongoing opportunities for members to network and discover new opportunities for partnerships and business building. We will also continue our popular Member Talks series, both in person and virtual, providing our members with the information and tools they need to stay competitive.
We are also developing new opportunities for members to showcase their product offerings and initiatives across our ecosystem through more integrated content and ad sales opportunities, as well as sponsorships of our corporate events, such as our annual NYC Tourism Foundation Gala, our Annual Meeting, Tristate Meeting Planner Event, Member Talks, Tourism Ready, Reverse Sales Missions and Business Expos and more.
In 2025 and 2026, New York City will be the site for some of the biggest celebrations the world has ever seen. NYC Tourism + Conventions is already working to ensure the foundation is created now to optimally leverage them for the benefit of our members and our destination. In May 2024, we will announce our upcoming history platform to media and travel trade around the world at IPW, designed to commemorate both the 400th anniversary of the founding of NYC in 2025 and the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States in 2026.
This history platform, Founded By NYC, will commemorate both anniversaries by celebrating the unmatched creativity, innovation and influence New Yorkers have had over the world since our city’s founding. In our creative and content, we will uplift underrepresented voices and stories, particularly those of the Lenape Indian tribe, free and enslaved Black Americans, and women. Our content will cut across our editorial and social channels through an ongoing release of articles, interviews and photo galleries, celebrating the City’s past, present and future, and encouraging travelers to make their own history in NYC. Our platform will also include a partnership with the iconic Broadway musical Hamilton, because what better way to tell the story of NYC’s place in our nation’s founding than with the help of the story that started it all? This partnership will come to life in a variety of ways, with more details to be announced.
As our America250 celebrations culminate in summer 2026, NYC and New Jersey will be home to the global celebration of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Eight matches will take place at New York New Jersey Stadium (MetLife Stadium), from Group Stage Matches starting June 13 to the Finals on July 19. As part of the festivities, there will be NYNJ Fan Fest events in every borough as well as many other tournament-related events. We look forward to leveraging this enormous opportunity to not only positively showcase our destination on a global stage but to encourage visitors to come early, explore more and stay longer.
During the 12-month period ending June 30, 2023, NYC Tourism + Conventions recognized $21 million of the revenue received from the City through the city contract and an additional $11.6 million in other public funding, including additional funding from the City, the American Rescue Plan and New York State funds. Revenue from the private sector—including membership—totaled an additional $11.2 million. In FY24 and beyond, the company’s city contract is subject to further PEG reductions, which are expected to negatively impact revenue by at least an additional $3 million per year over the next four years.
