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By THE NEW YORK TIMES
Published: September 27, 2009
Georgette Blau, 35, is president of On Location Tours, a Manhattan-based company that offers entertainment-themed tours of New York locations from movies like “Sex and the City” and television shows like “Gossip Girl” for about $40. Tourism from Europe rebounded more quickly than many tour operators had expected, providing a pleasant surprise, Ms. Blau said. Customers have started tipping again but they still are not paying up for premium-priced limousine tours, she said. She said she has decided to raise prices by about 5 percent next year.
I am definitely less worried. I was kind of nervous, especially around January, and thinking, oh my God, we’re going back to 2005. We always hold our breath in January and February in tourism. I was so on edge I didn’t know what to expect. We’re still a little bit on edge. I’ve heard the numbers are down 5 percent overall in New York. We’re 20 percent above 2007 and about 15 percent below 2008.
We’re seeing not only more Italians and French, but, specifically, younger Italians and French who are noticing how much cheaper New York is. This summer, we got tons and tons of people just post-college who were staying in hostels. So many of them are saying that they are staying in hostels or hotels that are becoming more affordable. The hotels literally went from $400 a night to $150.
The streets were flooded with tourists. Whenever we ask people in the international crowd, they don’t really know what the recession is. So we say, “We’re not going to tell you, just keep spending.”
One thing that definitely happened over the winter and spring was our tour guides were not getting tipped. We get the sense that people don’t bring any extra money with them. If the tour guides are lucky, they’ll get a dollar from a lot of the students.
I keep hearing of people losing their jobs, so I’m just hopeful. I’m still being cautious. I really don’t feel like we need to hire anybody more. But I happen to be hiring a salesperson to replace someone who is leaving. We’ve had a flood of résumés. Last time, we had a trickle of résumés. This time, not only have I gotten 45 to 50, but literally two weeks after I posted the job I’m still getting résumés.
