Forget crime, NYC remains the worlds greatest tourist town

New York City is a hellhole of unchecked crime, rampant homelessness, empty office buildings and raging maniacs on every corner and subway platform.How, then, can it be that the Big Apple drew 64.3 million visitors (tourists and business travelers) in 2024, a mere hair below the 2019 record of 66.2 million and 3.5% more than in 2023, according to the New York City Tourism + Conventions organization?How can total visitors in 2025 be projected to top that 2019 record, with at least 67 million visitors expected this year?Do the tourists harbor a death wish? Or are they just ordinary masochists who get their jollies from being held up at gunpoint and cursed at by psychos?Are business travelers wasting their time coming here, when a supposed glut of abandoned office buildings is an article of  faith among “experts” who maintain they’ll never recover from the COVID-10 exodus?Of course, in fact, Manhattan’s office towers are anything but empty — the best ones, at least,  are so full, tenants complain they can find no available space.And while some  local pols and pundits have given up on the Big Apple, the rest of the world clearly hasn’t.They have a clearer perception than do our home-grown “experts”  hung up on every grim statistic or false perception.News reports of fatal subway pushes aren’t the only source of information for people who don’t live or work here.

They also view our town through the social media prism, which is dominated by Facebook and Instagram photos of happy families and friends enjoying the sights.There are, also,  “Saturday Night Live” opening sequences which colorfully portray Midtown Manhattan and Rockefeller Center as the center of arts, entertainment and culture; the televised Times Square New Year’s Eve ball drops, which are far more fun than than fireworks in London and Dubai; and inimitable Big Apple public spectacles from the Coney Island Mermaid Parade to the New York City Marathon.Probably most important t...