New York City is seeing greater interest in sporting events for incentive programmes. Photo Credit: Anthony Berardi
New York City is set to welcome some 140,000 leisure and business travellers from Southeast Asia in 2024, nearly recovering from pre-pandemic visitation levels.
Watson Li, regional director, International MICE, said: “New York City continues to be popular across the Asia Pacific market. We continue to see strong interest from the incentive market and have seen an increase in queries regarding sustainability initiatives across our hotels, restaurants, and more – this can range from zero-waste dining to providing environmentally-friendly materials in conference rooms.
“The Javits Convention Center is also an industry leader in this space, with a number of sustainability initiatives including the largest green roof in the United States which includes a bird sanctuary and rooftop farm which supplies meals to conference attendees.
“We are also seeing an increase in interest from groups looking to build sporting events into their incentive programmes, from baseball and basketball to annual events like the US Open, Tennis and NYC Marathon. In recent sales activities, the news of the FIFA World Cup has been extremely well received, as we look ahead to hosting eight matches including the final in summer 2026,” added Li.
Robust expectations
Last year, it drew a total of 61.8 million travelers, marking a recovery of 93% of the city’s record 2019 visitation levels. With a forecasted 64.5 million visitors this year, and with business travel accounting for about 20% of all visits to New York City, New York Tourism + Conventions prides itself on being a one-stop-shop for some of the most important meetings, tradeshows, conventions and events in NYC, said Jerry Cito, EVP of Convention Development.
He added: “New York City is the most visited city in the United States and an iconic destination for all. Even those passing through or traveling for business often take a day or two to extend their stay. This is because guests to New York City can enjoy numerous iconic activities and experiences – from the lights and sounds of Broadway, epicurean food trips, immersive culture from the Guggenheim Museum or MOMA (Museum of Modern Art), and of course, shopping on Fifth Avenue and beyond.”
Reaching out to APAC
New initiatives are being rolled out for the Asia Pacific market. Li said: “In 2024, we intend to conduct more in-market sales activities and further expand our presence in Southeast Asia. We will do this by organising MICE Education Seminars in major gateway cities and attending regional conferences and business events, in addition to welcoming familiarisation trips from the market.
“Singapore remains one of the key markets where we focus our efforts; in the coming years however, we’ve also identified enormous potential in Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam.”
Recently, a number of incentive groups from Southeast Asia with groups of up to 1,200 people have made their way to New York, mostly staying for an average of three to five nights. They were primarily from the manufacturing, banking, and insurance sectors.
To reach the growing Southeast Asia visitor market, New York City Tourism + Conventions has also partnered with one of the region’s leading travel platforms, Traveloka, for an out-of-home and influencer campaign promoting NYC during the first half of 2024.
The city has more than 185,806 sqm of meeting and event space throughout the five boroughs, over 221,000 hotel rooms in current inventory with 10,000 rooms coming online; four international airports; and an extensive regional rail service.