Ilya Marritz
Ilya Marritz covers business for WNYC.
Families Flock to New York, Spending Cash
Monday, August 30, 2010
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Amy and Grace Cochran take their first cab ride. (Photo courtesy of Darren Cochran)
With school out for summer, the island of Manhattan became a big jungle gym for moms, dads and kids from all around the country. Soho, Chinatown, Ground Zero, the subways – everywhere you turned, it seemed there was a dad with a camcorder and young kids in “I ♥ New York” T-Shirts.
The city’s official tourism agency, NYC & Company, reports the number of American family visitors is growing. In 2009, the number of American families visiting New York rose six percent, to 13.25 million, even as the overall number of visitors fell to 45.6 million, due to the recession.
The city is even partnering with Dora the Explorer, the popular TV cartoon character, to promote the city to the Pre-K set.
I tagged along with a Tennessee family, the Cochrans, to find out how they navigate the city, and how much money it takes to entertain a family of three.
Darren Cochran is a warehouse manager. His wife Amy teaches the English language to foreign-born kids in a public school. Together they are home-schooling their 11-year-old daughter Grace.
Their reason for coming to New York? Television is a big one.
“A lot of food network shows focus on New York restaurants,” says Darren Cochran.
“And Project Runway!” says Amy, adding that she saw Tim Gunn the day before and snapped a photo. “But we didn’t ask for an autograph or anything geeky like that.”
The day I spent with the Cochrans, we visited a Starbucks, The New York Public Library, a hot dog stand, The Metropolitan Museum, and a Mexican restaurant. That evening, the Cochrans rode on the Circle Line, and took a taxi back to their hotel.
Darren reports, at the end of the day, the Cochrans spent $171, or $432 if you include their hotel, and the tourist passes that got them on the Circle Line and into the Natural History Museum.
A few days after they returned, I called Darren up. He said the family, spent a total of about $3,800 in total in New York City over seven days, mostly on hotels and restaurants. Was it worth it?
“I’m a beach guy. A vacation spent in a busy city wasn’t my idea of a relaxing vacation, Cochran says. "But I was able I think to relax a lot. And it was really neat, I loved it. It was kind of a surprise, you know.”
The Cochrans are looking into a return visit next spring.
If they do come back, they’ll be doing more than their share for two sectors of the New York economy that have seen the most job growth over the past 12 months: accommodation, and food service.
View The Cochran Family's Day in New York in a larger map
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