00:00When you look at this influx of people, has that actually translated into increased economic
00:03activity for New York City? Absolutely. Yeah. So going into the World Cup, we were forecasting
00:091.2 million visitors for the region, and they were going to spend economic, have an economic
00:15impact of $3 billion. And so when you translate that and you think about international visitors,
00:21so we last year saw 65 million visitors, and close to 12.5 million of those were international
00:27visitors. The thing that's key about international visitors is they spend their 50% of the spend.
00:33So they're going to stay longer, they're going to get on our subway systems, they're going to go out
00:37to the all five boroughs, and they're going to spend more money in New York City. I know we haven't
00:41had
00:41a World Cup in this area, but what does that mean when you have sort of this multi-week event?
00:46I
00:46mean, what is it, you know, four or five weeks? Absolutely. I mean, that's a lot different than
00:50just saying having a Super Bowl or having, you know, two NBA Finals games here. How does that
00:54translate with regards to the flow of people? Is it the same people who stay, or do you just get
00:59a churn over the five weeks? So we're fortunate. Our region has eight matches. We've already done
01:05three. We still have five to go. And of course, we have the finals on July 19th, Sunday. So we're
01:11really excited about that. What's key for us is four of the teams that are playing represent,
01:17they're in the top 10 of our country. So in terms of international visitation, so when you're thinking
01:21of UK, Germany, France, Brazil, they're all in our top 10 visitation. So fans are following teams,
01:29but also too, some are just coming to be a part of the energy. So not everyone has a ticket
01:35to the
01:35match, but what they're taking advantage of is all of the activation. So there are over a thousand
01:40businesses throughout all five boroughs that have posted activities. Some is just as simple as
01:46a bar or a restaurant, or they're offering a $26 offering or a drink. And so fans are all over
01:53the
01:54city and all over the region with or without tickets. Do you have any sense of like where
01:59they're spending money? I mean, obviously bars and restaurants would be number one in hotels,
02:02obviously, but beyond that, I mean, are they going to Broadway shows? I don't know how granular you can
02:07see that data as to where they're going. It's too soon to actually tell. However, what we do know
02:14from the profile of visitors that really are looking for live events, whether it's a sporting
02:18event, whether it's a concert, we know that things like Broadway shows are very popular. We also know
02:25that a number of our cultural attractions are doing soccer related or sports related exhibits.
02:31So when you think about the Empire State Building, they have iconic soccer jerseys. You think about the
02:36American Natural History Museum, they've got viewing parties as well as a special exhibit. And then of
02:43course, Rockefeller Center has a FIFA museum. So a lot of our attractions have really stepped up
02:48and leaned into soccer or sports related. I am curious as to in the lead up to this,
02:53what type of marketing you did to not only get people here. I mean, obviously, you knew people
02:57are going to come no matter what for just to see the matches. But but also you mentioned the five
03:00boroughs. I mean, obviously, when a lot of tourists think of New York, they typically think of
03:04Manhattan, they forget about the other four boroughs and everything that's there. When you were
03:08marketing to a lot of these folks, was that the pitch was kind of, you know, make sure you see
03:13all the attractions around the entire city. Yeah, we were really focused on two things. The
03:18Mondami administration gave us a grant of $4.5 million to advertise and market and sell for
03:26the World Cup specifically. And we really doubled down on what is the DNA of New York City, the fact
03:32that we're welcoming, the fact that we're inclusive, the fact that there's anything and everything at
03:36different price points for everyone to do. So we leaned into two things. One, you can enjoy
03:42this city, whether you have a match or not, and you can do that in all five boroughs.
03:46And we also talked about all of the activities outside of the match. So we know that they're
03:51going over to Jersey for the match. But then what are those things that you can do, whether
03:55it's to one of our beaches, cultural attractions, museums, try a restaurant. And so those things
04:00have been what we really promoted to our international visitor.
04:03I am curious, outside of the World Cup, I mean, how has tourism been? I mean, leading up to this
04:09and once the World Cup has come and gone, are we still, are we kind of back to where we
04:14were,
04:14you know, pre-pandemic? I mean, how are things shaping up?
04:17So going into this year, we were forecasting to be at the pre-pandemic levels, about 66.3 million
04:26visitors. Because of the conflict and because of the Iran conflict and because of the fluctuation of
04:32the dollar and some geopolitical tensions, we have lowered that forecast. So what we saw the
04:37first quarter is that we were down to our forecast about 510,000 visitors. We still have the opportunity
04:44and runway to make that up. What we are seeing, though, in hotel occupancy, for example, for the
04:48first week of the tournament, our hotels are running about 90 percent occupancy, which is 1.5 percent
04:55over June of last year. Okay. When I look at the total month of June, we're going to be about
05:002 percent over last year. So that's really flat, stable. So we'll see. July is definitely flat to
05:07last year. So I would say year over year, we should see growth. We may not see the forecasted numbers
05:14that we originally went into the year with. Okay. So there's still work to do.
05:17So
Comments