We’ll Be Back!

New York is a destination city. In 2019, more than 66 million visitors from the United States and around the world enjoyed sights and venues throughout the city with maybe only a “sold out” notice spoiling their good times. Preliminary numbers for 2020 looked like it would be another record-breaker. That is, until 8 p.m., March 22nd, when Governor Andrew Cuomo put New York State on “pause,” closing all but essential businesses and requiring residents to “shelter-in-place.” Overnight, the city’s entire $70-billion tourism industry evaporated.

The current travel restrictions present an un-precedented and unique circumstance in New York City’s history. With the exception of a relatively short period after the attack on the World Trade Center in 2001, and the occasional blizzard or hurricane, visitors have enjoyed “the city that never sleeps,” without interruption.

New Yorkers are looking forward to the day when we will once again welcome friends and visitors to explore this great metropolis. In the meantime, we can ‘virtually’ visit some of the city’s most popular attractions as depicted in pictures commissioned by the New York Convention and Visitors Bureau in the mid-1980s. It is a small collection—only 52 transparencies—but their bright colors and iconic scenery showcase what the city has to offer. Although the pictures are not dated, based on signs and banners, it appears the bulk were taken in 1986 or 1987. 

The New York Convention and Visitors Bureau created the photographs to illustrate their promotional materials. Formed in 1934 by merchants, hotel owners and other businesses to bring conventions to the city, the Bureau is a non-profit making entity. The Bureau and its companion organization, NYC & Company, are not city agencies, although they do receive budget support from tax-levy funds.

Given the many enduring wonders of the city it would seem that the Bureau’s job would be easy. But there were times when promoting the city was a challenge. “Has New York's image unjustifiably soured, from Fun City to Crime City?” headlined a June 14, 1972, New York Times story about the Bureau’s launch of their annual “New York is a Summer Festival.” For the coronation of Ms. Bernadette Allen, the 19th-annual Summer Festival Queen that year, the Bureau hosted a gala event at one of the city’s premier tourist venues, the Empire State Building. They enlisted celebrities such as Duke Ellington and the “ageless” actress Gloria Swanson to preside over the festival. It is not entirely clear how Swanson’s remarks at the launch, as quoted in the Times, would help to promote tourism: “I chose to live in New York City in 1938 because I pay taxes here.” Perhaps the comment she added, “I’m the hostess with the mostest,” better served the cause. 

Over the next several decades, the city experienced a renaissance and with it, tourism boomed. According to the Bureau, in 1977, more than 16 million tourists visited the city. By 1990, the figure climbed to 20 million, and surpassed 31 million by the end of the decade. After 9/11, tourism in the city gradually escalated up to 54 million in 2013. In 2019, the Bureau counted more than 66 million visitors—53.1 domestic travelers; and 13.5 arriving from overseas.