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NYC Tourism Official Fears Trump Travel Ban Could Cost City $120 Million In Tax Revenue
By
David Colon
Published Apr 21, 2017
Modified Mar 11, 2019
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via Flickr user Noel Y. Calingasan
By
David Colon
Published Apr 21, 2017
Modified Mar 11, 2019
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City officials are predicting that a drop in tourist visits to the city stemming from fear and uncertainty over President Trump's legally-challenged travel ban will cost New York big bucks, according to testimony delivered at a City Council hearing on the matter yesterday.
The city could be looking at over one billion dollars in lost tourism spending as a result of the president's attempts to ban travelers from seven majority-Muslim countries, NYC & Company's vice president Donna Keren testified yesterday according to the News. The figure was determined using a swing in predicted foreign visitors to the city, from an expected 400,000 person increase to a possible 300,000 person decrease. According to Keren, that would lead to a $600 million decrease in spending, which, combined with the drop from the original predicted increase in foreign tourists, could cost the city $1.6 billion in money spent here, along with $120 million in tax revenue.
NYC & Company released their projection of 300,000 fewer foreign tourists earlier this year, and explicitly blamed the first predicted downturn in foreign tourism in the city since 2008 on Trump's policies. "Regardless of the specifics, it's pretty clear the message is going to be unwelcoming," NYC & Company president Fred Dixon said at the time.
Council Member Dan Garodnick, who called the hearing on the impact of the travel ban and other Trump measures that affected travelers into the United States such as the ban on laptops on flights from Middle Eastern airports, said that even though the travel ban was overturned, "the message this travel ban sent is that foreigners are no longer welcome," according to Crain's.
However, at the hearing and on Twitter, Staten Island Council Member Joe Borelli disputed the idea that a perceived hostility to foreign visitors was causing a drop in tourism or would have a large economic impact on the city and the country. Nicole Gelinas, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute who has previously warned the city not to rely too heavily on tourism, also pointed to the most recent Port Authority data that didn't show a huge decline in international travelers landing at the New York and New Jersey airports.
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David Colon
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