Downtown Alliance Statement on Mayor Bloomberg, NYC & Company’s Campaign to Boost Lower Manhattan Tourism

Alliance for Downtown New York President Elizabeth H. Berger today issued the following statement regarding Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s announcement about a global communications and marketing campaign designed to promote Lower Manhattan to visitors and worldwide travel media.

“Lower Manhattan today is the model for a new kind of round-the-clock, global, mixed-use business district where people live, work and play,” Berger said. “Thirty billion dollars in public and private investment in the last decade has created thousands of new apartments, acres of new parks, five new ferry landings, two European-style restaurant rows, hundreds of exciting retailers and a fantastic roster of hotels, triple the number we had 10 years ago. And, as a result of all of this activity, 9 million people visited Lower Manhattan last year – a 26 percent jump from 2008 – and our population has more than doubled to 56,000 over the last decade. For 400 years, we’ve mastered the art of reinvention in Lower Manhattan – and we’ve always prevailed as an active innovative center of urban life. Here’s to 400 more.”

The promotional campaign will encourage visitors to stay in Lower Manhattan’s hotels, eat in its restaurants, shop in its stores and get a glimpse of all of what the neighborhood has to offer. Lower Manhattan continues to grow with new residents, businesses, cultural attractions and open space, and the 9/11 Memorial will begin welcoming visitors in September 2011. The campaign will feature Lower Manhattan travel itineraries, special hotel offers, and other deals, and it will use outdoor media ads, a taxicab TV spot and a print campaign at John F. Kennedy International Airport. You can learn more about the program at www.nyc.gov.

Besides Berger, Mayor Bloomberg was joined at the announcement, which was held at Bayard’s at Hanover Square in Lower Manhattan, by NYC & Company CEO George Fertitta, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, Congressman Jerrold Nadler, State Senator Daniel Squadron, Council Member Margaret Chin, National September 11 Memorial and Museum President Joe Daniels, Community Board 1 Chairwoman Julie Menin, and Trust for Governors Island President Leslie Koch.