MAYOR ADAMS RELEASES NEW ANALYSIS SHOWING - POST-COVID RECOVERY OF HOLIDAY SPENDING, JOB CREATION, FOOT TRAFFIC AS “AFFORDABILITY WEEK” ROLLS ON

 

Average of Over 3 Million People Visited City Shopping Districts Every Day During 2023 Holiday Season, With Over 4 Million Daily Visits on Weekend Before Christmas 

  

Retail Sector Has Added Average of 14,000 Jobs Each Holiday Season, Generating Over $500 Million Per Year in Economic Impact 

  

Outside of Manhattan, Outer Borough Hubs in Downtown Flushing and Downtown Brooklyn Attract Large Crowds During Holiday Season 

New York City Mayor Eric Adams released a new report, “Festive Spending: the Impact of the Holiday Season on NYC Retail,” showing holiday season shopping in New York City has fully recovered following the COVID-19 pandemic, attracting up to 4.4 million daily visitors, creating 14,000 jobs, and pouring over $500 million into New York City’s local economy. This injection of money into local businesses comes as Mayor Adams celebrates “Affordability Week,” where he is advancing a series of generational projects that will make New York City more affordable for working-class people. The New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) report — analyzing daily visitation on Black Friday and December weekends from 2019 to 2023 — traced foot traffic across traditional Manhattan tourism and retail hubs like Times Square and Fifth Avenue, as well as neighborhoods across the boroughs like Downtown Flushing in Queens and MetroTech in Brooklyn. As the Adams administration and New York City has broken multiple records for total jobs in the city’s history, and a recent analysis from the New York City Department of City Planning (DCP) shows a robust recovery of the retail sector, the holiday season is poised to bring a significant boost to New York City’s economy and continue to put money in New Yorkers’ pockets, making the city more affordable for working-class people. 

  

“New York City isn’t just coming back — we’re back, and we’re better than ever,” said Mayor Adams. “We’re hitting jobs record after jobs record, we’ve brought our economy back from its COVID lows to hit new highs, and we’re continuing to put money back into working-class New Yorkers’ pockets to make this city more affordable. No time is that more true than the holidays — and we can’t wait to welcome the millions of people from around the world who come to our shopping districts this time of year. They’re supporting thousands of jobs and businesses, and injecting half a billion dollars into our local economy. So, when you’re shopping this holiday season, remember — shop local, shop small, and most of all, spend money in New York City!” 

  

“This report offers data that supports what we see across the city every day — a robust economy, bustling business corridors, and a large and growing network of small businesses in every borough,” said First Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer. “As we enter the holiday retail season, the city will see hundreds of millions of dollars of spending at businesses of all sizes and is poised to enter 2025 on an economic upswing that will benefit all New Yorkers.” 

  

“New York City has reached record highs this year in employment and labor force participation. This new report shows that our shopping districts have also had a strong comeback and will continue to thrive,” said NYCEDC President and CEO Andrew Kimball. “New York City’s holiday season is expected to return to its pre-COVID levels this year, bringing millions of visitors, thousands of jobs, and hundreds of millions of dollars to our communities, from Midtown Manhattan to Downtown Flushing and everywhere in between.” 

  

Key takeaways from the report include:  

•   The holiday season is the busiest time of the year for New York City shopping districts. In 2023, daily visitation during Black Friday and December weekends averaged 3.2 million visitors, a 14 percent increase from the average daily visitation of the year. Daily visitation in these districts peaked at 4.4 million visitors — 2.8 times the population of Manhattan — on the weekend before Christmas. 

•   Manhattan retail hubs like Fifth Avenue, Bryant Park, Times Square, and SoHo are the most popular destinations for holiday shopping, with foot traffic increasing significantly on Black Friday as well as on December weekends. In other boroughs, retail hubs like Downtown Flushing and the MetroTech area in Downtown Brooklyn also attract large crowds. Daily visits to Downtown Flushing, for example, exceed those to SoHo. 

•   The holiday season is also a key driver of jobs for the retail sector. Since 2020, the retail sector has added an average of 14,000 jobs each holiday season, generating over $500 million per year in economic impact. 

•   The Midtown hubs — Times Square, Bryant Park, and Fifth Avenue — are top attractions for tourists, especially during the holidays. In 2023, 70 percent of visitors to these areas during the holiday season came from outside of the city, 9 percentage points higher than an average weekend. 

•   Increased visitation leads to higher consumer spending near the end of the year. In New York City, spending during December weekends in 2023 was 20 percent higher than non-holiday weekends that year. 

  

This report on holiday retail boosts follows positive news last month from DCP that storefront vacancy rates have declined for four consecutive quarters. By comparison, a survey of 24 corridors across the city during the summer of 2020 showed inactivity rates of over 30 percent.  

  

The Adams administration has continued to support businesses, invest in public realm improvements, and cut red tape across the five boroughs, resulting in this commercial revitalization. In June, the New York City Council passed Mayor Adams’ “City of Yes for Economic Opportunity” zoning amendment, which will help businesses find space and grow, support entrepreneurs and freelancers, boost growing industries, and enable more vibrant streetscapes and commercial corridors. Through the New York City Department of Small Business Services, the Adams administration has also connected small businesses to over $290 million in grants and loans and more than $35 million in commercial revitalization for Business Improvement Districts. As a result, New York City now has a record number of small businesses in operation, and one in five small businesses open today opened during the Adams administration. 

  

In October, Mayor Adams and the Future of Fifth Partnership unveiled their plans to transform Fifth Avenue, between Bryant Park and Central Park, into a world-class, pedestrian-centered boulevard, bolstering the iconic corridor’s status as an economic engine and job creator for New York City. The proposed design expands sidewalks by 46 percent, shortens crosswalks making for safer crossings, reduces the number of traffic lanes from five to three, and adds plantings and lighting for aesthetics and safety. 

  

NYCEDC used a variety of primary and secondary data sources to study the economic impact of the holiday season. The visitation and foot traffic data are from Placer.ai. The spending trends are based on the Mastercard consumer spending index. Employment figures come from the New York State Department of Labor Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages. The economic impact is estimated using holiday retail employment and the RIMS II multipliers for New York City from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.