Experts: New York Tourism Could Take Quite a While to Recover

We know 2020 hasn't been the best year for business. Duh. Well, one tourism agency put together a forecast if and when New York can bounce back to pre-COVID levels, and the results are a bit depressing. Tourism has helped fuel New York City's economy for many years, as the Big Apple became of the world's "safest big cities" to visit. That all changed this year, and now experts are saying it may be another five years before tourism levels can fully recover.

ABCNY is reporting that an agency called  NYC & Company says the numbers might not return to normal until 2025. According to the experts, New York City was looking pretty good up until March 2020. Then, you know what happened.

The public health and safety measures put in place in mid-March to address the pandemic put practically all leisure and most business travel on hold.

Reports says that some regional travel began to pick back up by summer, though overall domestic travel was only one-third the normal amount. Then, there's the international market, which is over 80 percent down from 2019.

The good news says that if a vaccine is released it could start to turn the market around by late spring/early summer 2021. With the city under lockdown during spring, many people from New York City began leaving for areas like the Hudson Valley, Lake George, as well as New England. With so many employees working remotely from home, this made the transition much quicker and easier.

Well, a least there's Christmas coming up and the Rockefeller Tree? Oh, wait. No one likes that either. Let's get 2020 over with, please.