Last year was an exceptional year for tourism in New York, when officials said a record 60 million people visited the city. On the other hand, this year is not looking so good.
City officials, including the top tourism executive, expect a drop in foreign tourists because of fears over the Trump administration’s “travel ban,” which bans citizens of six predominantly Muslim nations from the Middle East from traveling to the United States.
The six nations are Sudan, Yemen, Somalia, Libya, Syria, and Iran. Although the ban is not in effect because the Supreme Court hasn’t made it a law, Trump’s repeated attempts to put it into effects, continuous to have a chilling impact on tourism.
Donna keren, New York City & Company’s vice president, estimates that the city will lose $120 million in tax money because less people will travel to the city because of the ban.
“If the United States is perceived as hostile, or if visitors lose confidence with our entry process or are unfairly denied entry, they will choose to spend their money visiting and exploring destinations in other countries that are easier to enter, welcoming, and inclusive. Important travel destinations like NYC would suffer disproportionately,” Keren said, speaking at a city council hearing on April 20, 2017.
The city is expecting 300,000 less foreign tourists this year than last. This numbers looks even more surprising given that the city originally expected the number of foreign tourist to increase by 400,000 instead of the decrease.

Michael Pellagatti has been a sightseeing guide for the Guides Association of New York City (GANYC) since 2013. Pellagatti has featured in both the New York Times and the Gothamist. He’s is also a member of the original group of protesters who launched Occupy Wall Street.
“On the surface, to the outsider — the tourism industry can appear to be superficial, communally exploitative, and overly commercial. However I look at tourism as a tool to educate and enlighten visitors in regards to how what happened in the past shapes the world that they live in today,” Pellagatti said.
When asked about how the travel ban may affect tourism in the city, Pellagatti added the following.
“Being that the Trump Administration’s restrictions against seven predominantly Muslim nations is relatively recent; it is too soon to provide concrete statistics as they have not come to fully manifest yet. So far — according to what I see working the bus — the industry has not slowed down too much, but when peak season arrives (May-September) the results will be much more certain.”
Andrew Sydor, another sightseeing guide from GANYC, had similar feelings towards the possible travel ban.
“That’s difficult to say. There are some negative projections in the media, but they’re projections; we won’t really know until the end of the year counts come out. But obsessing on the number of tourists may miss the point. There are negative effects of the ban that will not be measured in those numbers. I belong to the Guide Association of New York City (GANYC). We sent a delegation this year to the World Federation of Tourist Guide Associations (WFTGA) convention, with the goal of getting them to bring their next convention to NYC. We made it into the final round, but the vote was coming down literally as the travel ban came out. Oh, and this convention was in Iran. So, no, we did not get the bid. Now, that was not for this year, but it’s still a loss, and one that will cost the city’s economy millions of dollars. But that loss will never show up in the numbers of tourists,” Sydor said.

Both Michael Pellagatti and Andrew Sydor stated that Tourism is an essential part of New York City. They also added that much of what makes our city what it is (Arts, restaurants, museums) would not exist as it does without the tourist dollar to support it.
Some of the most popular tourist sites in the city are The Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, Central Park, Times Square and the 9/11 memorial.
Located in Liberty island, the Statue of Liberty was France’s gift to America and is a symbol of freedom. Currently, it is the largest statue in the world.
The 102nd floor observatory of the Empire State building is about 1,250 feet above the streets of the city, and provides views of up to 80 miles which allows viewers to see neighboring states such as New jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts as well as the rest of New York State.
Central Park offers many sites for tourists such the Central Park Zoo, Strawberry Fields and the Lake, which allows people to skate in the winter and paddling in the summer.

Times Square is most well-known for the New Year’s Ball drop that takes place annually, but it is also home mammoth billboards, and some of the greatest theatres in the world. Located within the perimeters of the One world Trade center, the 9/11 memorial commemorates the fallen victims of the horrific attacks that took place on September 11, 2001.
“New travel restrictions — including bans, limited or reduced access to visas, and ‘extreme vetting’ — will limit the number of people who are permitted to enter our country,” Keren added as one of her closing statements.
Marco Antonelli, a tourist from Milan, Italy stated that he has been planning on coming to New York for five years, and almost cancelled his trip after he read about the potential ban. However, he decided to come anyways because it has been a dream of his to come to the city.
“I really thought about cancelling the trip after I got news about the ban, and thought to myself whether if it was the best time to go to New York given the current state of the country, since Trump came into office,” Antonelli said.