Tourism

Ulrich Seidl Begins His Paradise Trilogy with Lonely Love

Florida Wants More Gays!

And they already have more than Ikea on Super Bowl Sunday. (Yes, that tired joke again.) See, I went to a Florida LGBT tourism reception the other night at Humphrey's at the Eventi Hotel and was told by Richard Gray of the city's Convention and Visitors Bureau that the number one air route in Ameri ... More >>

The Lion of Judah

MAKING TRACKS

Take a walk on the High Line

NY Post Goes Fracking Crazy in Pro-Hydraulic Fracturing Editorial

The Post is a bit beside itself this morning, unable to process the position of fracking opponents. It's not simply that the editorial board disagrees with them and published an opinion piece explaining why -- the board can't wrap its head around the fact that dissenting opinion should have weight ... More >>

Not in My Backyard! Brooklyn Residents Say New Hotel Will Bring Prostitution and Drugs to East Flatbush

​East Flatbush is a lovely neighborhood in Brooklyn -- but it's just not really a tourist destination. So if a developer is looking to open a hotel in the area, it can only mean one thing: Prostitution, drugs, and other bad, bad activity. Right?  This is the line of thinking behind a new not- ... More >>

New York Plans On Luring Young Tourists to the City

New York is lookin' for youngins! And not just any run-of-the-mill youth: New York wants ones with money! (Well, ones with at least a little green to spend...) Anyway, NYC and Company, the city's tourism agency, is trying to get more members of the under-30 age group to visit the city and spend ca ... More >>

Record Number of Tourists Visited Lower Manhattan Last Year

Lower Manhattan saw nearly 9.8 million tourists visit last year, a record number for an area revitalized by development and the World Trade Center site. Many of those were drawn here by the newly-opened September 11 Memorial, which has already attracted more than 1 million visitors in the four mon ... More >>

GRAPHIC CONTENT

We heart Milton Glaser

'Where's the Band?'

Random British Couple 'Rewarded Handsomely' For Letting Mayor Ruin Their Wedding

​Mayor Bloomberg held a press conference today to announce that the city hosted 50 million tourists this year. As guests of honor for the conference, the city invited British couple Craig Johnson and Lucy Foulger. The pair had been married only an hour earlier. Johnson and Foulger, those gen ... More >>

Jeff Bezos' Spaceship Loses Control, is Destroyed

via Blue Origin​A spacecraft funded by Amazon head Jeff Bezos lost control during a test flight and was destroyed, the Wall Street Journal reports. Blue Origin, a commercial space company Bezos funds, is believed to have launched and lost the unmanned craft on August 24th. In a letter written ... More >>

MASTER OF PUPPPETS

Remembering the genius of Jim Henson

Did HRC Drive Off with the NOM Defector's Marriage Equality Tour?

Did HRC steal the name or idea for their bus tour from the NOM defector, or is it a coincidence?​Last week, we broke the story that Kitty Lambert, one of the very first lesbians legally married in New York State, would be joining NOM defector Louis Marinelli, once a staunch opponent of gay mar ... More >>

Andrew Silverstein, Tour Guide, Talks Queens, Immigration and Big Red Buses

Esther ZuckermanAndrew Silverstein​Andrew Silverstein, one of the co-founders of Streetwise New York, coaxed us to step inside Economy Candy on Rivington, a mecca of sweet treats. We had just chatted over frothy coffees at El Castillo de Jagua. Both are stops on Streetwise's "Immigrant NY, Old ... More >>

New York City Lost the Tourist Game to Orlando

Disclosure: I'm from here (not the castle)​Apparently Mayor Michael Bloomberg wanted New York City to be the first city in America to annoy its permanent residents with 50 million tourists in one year. In 2010, Bloomberg said NYC had 48.7 million visitors, while Orlando, Florida had 48.6 milli ... More >>

Tourists Love New York City, and Especially Brooklyn

​​​Oh, goody. The New York Times' City Room reports that tourism in New York City hit a new high last year, raking in a record 48.7 million slow-walking, skyscraper-gazing, sidewalk-congesting, Century 21-shopping visitors.

Are Bedbugs Scaring Tourists Away From NYC?

​Tourists afraid of bedbugs? The Associated Press thinks so! Today's national wire carries a terrifying (and mostly anecdotal) piece about how bedbugs -- this year's trendiest New York annoyance/epidemic/infestation -- are threatening the city's "$30 billion tourism industry."

The 9/11 iPhone App: Not Quite 'DoodleJump'

​Those of you with iPhones out there in the world have a universe of various games, utilities, and information at your fingertips with the single swipe of a finger, as there's an iPhone app for everything. Even, apparently, to help us remember 9/11.

New York Tours Are as Diverse and Disturbing as New Yorkers Themselves

​Crazy celebrity stalkers and morbid ghost-seekers unite for a two-hour tour of the city's sites of notorious deaths (Heath Ledger, Keith Haring, Sid Vicious, "Crazy Joe" Gallo, Thomas Paine, to name a bunch)! And the tour vehicle is no smiley double-decker bus -- it's a hearse (actually a 196 ... More >>

St. Patrick’s Weekend Irish New York Walking Tour

Vancouver HIM Makes Kissy Gay Tourism Pitch During Olympics

​The most recent Gay & Lesbian Tourism Survey rankings by Community Marketing, Inc. showed New York hanging in as the nation's #1 GLBT tourist destination. But those crafty Canadians are pulling out all the stops to eat our gay-tourism lunch. Here's a poster from the Vancouver Health Initiati ... More >>

Critical Mass Has to Have a Permit for Big Bike Rides, Says Judge

​In 2007 NYPD, fed up with the big, rowdy Critical Mass bike events, made up a new parade regulation requiring all bicycle gatherings of 50 or more to get a permit. (Critical Mass usually involves hundreds of bikes.) The Five Borough Bike Club filed suit, claiming the arbitrary reg violated cy ... More >>

'Numero's Eccentric Soul Revue'

'The Mandala Concert'

STRANGE BREW

So many beers, so little time

Tavern on the Green Under New Management -- For First Time in 33 Years

​Notorious Central Park tourist trap Tavern on the Green will for the first time in 33 years be run by somebody other than the LeRoy family, who have been responsible for its mothy elegance since the 70s: Dean Poll, who runs the Central Park Boathouse, described by Eater as "another disappoint ... More >>

'Sunday Best with Theo Parrish'

Grimaldi's Opens in Queens

NY1 brings word that a new branch of Grimaldi's has opened in Queens. The location, on 61st Avenue in Douglaston, offers the same menu, as well as new salads. Whether or not it will become, in the words of Grimaldi's manager Gina Peluso, a "total total total tourist attraction" like the original DUM ... More >>

Brooklyn ATM Charging $3.99 for a Withdrawal

Amazing. An ATM in DUMBO is charging an exorbitant $3.99 to withdraw money. Mike McLaughlin of the Brooklyn Paper pegs the ATM machine as at the foot of Old Fulton Street in DUMBO -- with its delightful panoramic view of the Brooklyn Bridge -- as one of the city's more egregious tourist traps. Is ... More >>

My Life in Ruins Is Nia Vardalos' Strangely Self-Loathing Anti-Comeback

Curtis Sliwa: Tour Guide

Guardian Angels founder, radio talk show host, mob target, and champion pickle eater Curtis Sliwa recently added a new feather to his red cap: he's now a tour guide. In a video on the site dedicated to his new venture, "Underbelly Tours," Sliwa explains how his three-hour tours begin in the subw ... More >>

Oh, Canada. More Food Obamamania

A very earnest pastryMaybe you all have heard of the Canadian snack known as BeaverTails, but I had not before a press release from the Ottawa Tourism Board pinged into my inbox. Apparently, the BeaverTail is a fried whole wheat dough stretched into the shape of a beaver's tail ("one of Canada's na ... More >>

New York Opens Mumbai Tourist Office

KF Seetoh on Singaporean Street Food

The All-Star Game As Economic Boon? Don't Believe the Hype

STEP ASIDE

Atlantic Avenue gets done up

TAKE IT TO THE BRIDGE

Celebrating the Brooklyn Bridge’s B-day

Pickled Protest at LES Tenement Museum

Deliciousness Tour Ends Tonight with Red Hook Party

Jim Leff's Street Food Map

Tropical Maladies

A smart, sentimental view of pre-AIDS sex tourism

London Calling: An Aesthetic Manifesto

Class Conscious

Accidental learning through leisure activities

Uncertain Regard

Novelist Michel Houellebecq's French Letters

Not Fragile

Where the Hell Are You?

An Open Letter From Israel to American Tourists

Memory Lane

Queers Ahoy!

The high price of gay and lesbian travel