Despite Harlem being world renown for nearly a century, ARA conducted the first-ever visitor count and economic impact study of Upper Manhattan. Released by the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone in 2000, ARA found that Upper Manhattan welcomed 434,000 out-of-town visitors (non-NYC residents) who went to an average of 1.74 different attractions per visit.
Read MoreIncluding NYC residents, the number of unique visitors to Upper Manhattan totaled 817,000, comprised of 533,000 individuals at the cultural attarctions and 284,000 on bus tours.
The economic impact of cultural attractions and their visitors amounted to $167 million (in 1999) and generated 1,674 jobs annually.
To acquire the visitor and expenditure data, ARA interviewed 2,586 visitors in four seasonal waves at 17 institutions and talked with 1,169 passengers on tourist buses. ARA also assessed the incidence of visitors arriving via public transportation including four subway lines, seven city bus routes, the Metro-North station at 125th Street and parking garages. The questionnaires were administered in seven languages.
ARA conducted a follow-up study for NYC & Company in 2003 which counted 473,000 visitors at sites in Upper Manhattan. Based on 1,145 interviews at seven cultural sites, ARA found that 60 percent of Upper Manhattan post 9/11 visitors lived outside of New York City. They were visiting or planning to visit an average of 2.1 venues. Their average income had risen to $80,200 from $66,000 in the previous study.