Report: Record number of tourists to NYC will continue breaking records

[Photo on Astor Place last June by Derek Berg]

Not necessarily neighborhood specific. But perhaps of interest. In case you missed this in The New York Times today.

It has been a decade since former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg decided to ramp up New York City’s efforts to attract more tourists, and city officials say there is no end to the influx on the horizon.

In Berlin on Wednesday, Fred Dixon, the chief executive of New York’s tourism-marketing agency, NYC & Company, plans to announce a forecast of 59.7 million visitors this year. That would exceed last year’s record of 58.3 million visitors by 2.4 percent and keep the city on pace for a goal of drawing 67 million annual visitors by 2021

Alicia Glen, the deputy mayor for economic development, said their goal is get tourists to explore other parts of NYC.

Tourism officials are hoping to persuade out-of-towners that “the cool thing to do is to get out of Manhattan,” Ms. Glen said. “You’re sort of a loser if you come to New York and just go to Times Square.”

[EVG flashback] These are a few of the photos you'll find when you search for "Carrie Bradshaw" on Flickr

Yesterday, Curbed noted that 64 Perry Street is now on the market... For worse, this 1866 West Village rowhouse serves as the stand-in for Carrie Bradshaw's home on "Sex and the City." This item reminded me that! For some reason, I left the neighborhood to do this post, which first appeared on June 2, 2008...

Part of the Sex and the City tours includes a stop at this Perry Street townhouse in the West Village. Yes, this is the stoop that the Carrie Bradshaw character sits on in the show. (Actually, five different stoops were used; this one most frequently, I'm told by someone who really likes and knows the show.)

According to Forbes: The show, which made a fifth character out of New York City, attracts fans to the Big Apple in droves, and locals cash in. Location Tours offers a three-hour bus tour that stops at shops and bars that have appeared on the show. The tour costs $40 a head, and its owners say it attracts as many as 1,000 people a week. Destination on Location Travel offers "set-jetting" weekends in New York, where groups of up to twelve women are shuttled around town and given the fantasy that they're one of the four Sex characters. The price: a hefty $15,000 per person.

This weekend in stupid tourists playing chicken with cars in a busy East Village intersection

Thanks to the good people over at The Late Adopter for sharing this link with us...

Just after midnight on Avenue A and Seventh Street, two reportedly "drunken tourists" started playing in the traffic....

According to The Late Adopter, the two were singing loudly and wildly running in front of cabs and cars, at one point lying down in the street. "After about 15 minutes a police van rolled up and detained the drunker of the two. Eventually an ambulance showed up too so kudos to NYPD for safety first."

My guess is that they were new singles who moved here.

The Late Adopter has more photos here.

It's a thin line between love and hate

A reader sent along this shot over the weekend...though they didn't say where it was or who shot it... (Still don't know who to give credit to!)



Anyway, BoweryBoogie has a post on this today... As he notes, it's on Rivington between Norfolk and Suffolk Streets. Directly across from Schiller’s.

Now let's get in line for some Frrrozen Hot Chocolate at Serendipity 3!

I don't make it up to this part of town all that often so...in case this has already been covered elsewhere... spotted this over by Park Avenue South and 33rd Street earlier this week...



...and if you stand at this spot and look toward the west... you can almost see where Rick's Cabaret is on 33rd Street...

Posts that I never got around to posting: What are some good bars/clubs in NYC?

Last week, a tourist coming into town posted a rather innocuous question on TravelAgencyNY: "How much money should I bring with me... and what are some good bars/clubs?"

And here's one of the responses:

These are a few ive been too they are free to get in and the atmosphere is great, i would go easy on the credit card the last thing you want is huge repayments once you get home, but honestly the more money you take the more fun you have!

Bowery Ballroom — 6 Delancy St, 212-533-2111
Small to mid-sized rock venue that hosts well-known acts such as the Rollins Band, Collective Soul and Los Lobos — and lesser-known acts such as Honky Toast and Pink Martini. Not much in the way of atmosphere but the sound system and lighting are good, and the wait to get a drink is relatively short.

CBGB’s –— 315 Bowery (at Bleeker St), 212-982-4052
The Bowery’s finest. Birthplace of punk, new wave, alternative or whatever you choose to call it. Live bands seven days a week. Atmosphere: graffiti on graffiti, not the place to take grandma. Known for its rich history having been the springboard for the Ramones, Patti Smith, Blondie, Talking Heads and others. Also, has one of the top sound systems in town. Admission: $5.

Whether or not he or she was serious, the respondent copped the descriptions from here.

Not to mention the many fro-yo shops...

From a New York Times article today titled "Some tourists don't need advice":

A young couple from Zaragoza, Spain, said that what made their trip was the decision to stay in the St. Marks Hotel in the East Village, as opposed to a more traditional Midtown location. “The St. Marks is not a grand hotel,” said Jesús Longares, a 32-year-old engineer. “But it is in a fascinating area. There are many contrasts. You can see a store specializing in comics, and then a boutique for Goths.”

No shots in front of George for tourists on Monday afternoon

While it doesn't have the historical significance of Carrie Bradshaw's stoop, the George Washington statue in front of Federal Hall on Wall Street is a busy tourist destination. These photos I borrowed from random strangers on Flickr show just this...(and bonus points for tourists who strike the Washington post with a hand outstretched...)









Anyway! Bad news for tourists on Monday! Why? Because several media outlets hogged up the space for aerial shots of Wall Street.



So tourists had to make do with other photo opps for the afternoon...like the dumpster alongside Federal Hall. (And why would anyone take this shot of a dumpster...?)

Wall Street Week in Review

As our nation's economy gasped and wheezed through another traumatic week, enterprising reporters, tourists, news networks, protestors and, uh, bloggers, braved a chaotic Wall Street to be a witness to history. Or something equally dramatic.

Here are some snapshots from the week that was Wall Street.