Marketing Manchester and NYC & Company, the official destination marketing organisation of New York City, have signed an official city-to-city tourism collaboration agreement.
The United Kingdom is the number one international market for New York City, accounting for 1.24 million visitors in 2018.
The two-year alliance includes a collaboration agreement between the two cities, the sharing of best practices in tourism marketing and a partnership with Virgin Atlantic to stimulate reciprocal travel.
“I’m incredibly proud that Marketing Manchester has been able to secure what is undoubtedly a very powerful partnership with NYC & Company,” said Marketing Manchester managing director, Sheona Southern.
“New York City is one of the top tourism destinations in the world and to be able to align ourselves with a city that we have so much in common with – especially in respect to being open, diverse and welcome destinations – is a huge coup and speaks volumes about Manchester’s increasing global profile.”
Combined with the Virgin Atlantic partnership and diaries full of key cultural dates for both of the cities in 2020, the new tourism partnership has the potential to claim a portion of the $75 billion incentive market.
For Manchester, 2020 marks a significant investment of £200 million across the city which has aided the opening of the exhibition gallery at the science and industry Museum, reopened contact and Octagon theatres and refurbished the Band on the Wall venue.
Manchester will also welcome the new 40-room boutique Stock Exchange Hotel and the aptly named Hotel Brooklyn which opened on Portland Street earlier this year.
Wigan Pier is also being spruced up and RHS Garden Bridgewater project, one of Europe’s largest heritage gardening projects, is set to open phase one.
Similarly, in 2020, New York City will celebrate several cultural milestones. The Metropolitan Museum of Art and American Museum of Natural History will both commemorate 150th anniversaries while the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx will debut the first large-scale exhibition of Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama’s engagement with nature, including new works created specifically for the exhibit.
To support the partnership, both cities with share best practices in tourism marketing and destination management, including strategy around arts and culture, sports and LGBTQ+ travel.
NYC & Company estimates the city hosted approximately 6.2 million meetings delegates in 2018. The Big Apple welcomed a record 65.2 million visitors, of which 13.5 million were international visitors, the ninth consecutive year of tourism growth. A record 37.7 million hotel room nights were sold citywide last year, generating $623 million (£472m) in estimated hotel occupancy tax revenues.
The top five international markets for 2018 NYC visitation were: the United Kingdom (1.24 million), China (1.1 million), Canada (1 million), Brazil (920,000) and France (807,000).
A desire to travel led Holly Patrick to the business meetings and events world and she’s never looked back. Holly takes a particular interest in event sustainability and creating a diverse and inclusive industry. When she’s not working, she can be found rolling skating along Brighton seafront listening to an eclectic playlist, featuring the likes of Patti Smith, Sean Paul, and Arooj Aftab.
