Tag Archives: Kathy Hochul

New York: Bringing Back the Tourists

It is time for tourists to start touring again. We’ve had over 18 months of extremely reduced travel but now that the vaccines are widespread and numbers are going down, it is important for people to start traveling again…both for business and leisure.

In fact, getting people back to New York has become such a huge mission that print media throughout the world (England, Canada, Europe and Asia) have been publishing ads promoting the art scene in New York.  The wording in the ad reads:

“We reopened in August 2020, but have been missing one critical thing — you, our international visitors. The Met is only The Met when it is being enjoyed daily by visitors from around the world.”

This kind of ad is not something that is generally done.  Global advertisements like this do not really have a place in the promotion of city’s museums. But with the borders reopening (having been closed since March 2020 more-or-less), it is time for people to come back.  As we know, leisure and tourism were two industries that probably suffered the most because of the pandemic, so now it is crucial that anything that can facilitate their return be put in place.  Global Communications VP at NYC& Company, Chris Hopwood said:

“It’s crucial that we recover this segment. Arts and culture are going to lead our recovery. That is the backbone.”

The $450 million “Bring Back Tourism, Bring Back Jobs” recovery package for the tourism industry that Governor Kathy Hochul just announced at the Museum of Natural History will be sure to be helpful too.  Hochul pointed out that the entire industry is indicative of what makes New York unique and without it coming back, “New York can’t come back.”

Let’s hope the tourism and leisure industries in New York come back better than ever.

Re-Opening of New York’s Economy

The economy has been shut down for around six weeks now due to the extremely contagious COVID-19.  But Governor Cuomo is in the process of implementing a plan to re-open the economy on a regional level. Easing restrictions will be undertaken based on data taking into consideration the number of hospitalizations, confirmed cases of the virus and other related factors.

Cuomo pointed how regions look very different even within the state, specifically mentioning the divergences between New York City, Central New York and North Country.  Other areas will be monitored by governors there such as Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul (Western New York and Buffalo) and Lt. Gov. Bob Duffy (Rochester and Finger Lakes).

In addition, New York State is increasing testing to health care workers, essential employees and first responders.  The goal is to reach 40,000 people each day.  In addition, in the near future independent pharmacies should be able to conduct diagnostic testing resulting in a network of 5,000+ pharmacies with this capacity.

It is likely that many measures will gradually be put in place to get the economy going again but that it will take a long time.  Some examples include: staggered schedules at work; less people per square footage of office space and temperature taking before entering the building.  Those who can work from home may continue to do so at least for the foreseeable future.