“Few sectors of New York City’s economy lean more heavily on foreign tourists for revenue than the arts, and, as international travel to the United States restarts Monday, the city’s cultural institutions are more than eager for them to return,” writes Matt Stevens in Sunday’s (11/8) New York Times. “Employment in New York City’s arts, entertainment and recreation sector plummeted by 66 percent from December 2019 to December 2020, according to a state report. Tourists from outside the U.S. comprise about 15 percent of Broadway’s audience during a traditional season…. Across the last five seasons at the Metropolitan Opera, international ticket sales have averaged about 20 percent of the total box office…. One in four people go to some kind of live performance when they are in the city… When they do so now, they will need to comply with the same vaccination rules that New Yorkers must follow…. Ken Weine, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, said that … currently, the number of people who visit the Met daily is about half of what it was before the pandemic. And from a revenue perspective, welcoming back international visitors helps the bottom line.”
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