Audience Research & Analysis has been tracking the number of unique visitors to Lower Manhattan for The Alliance for Downtown New York since 2012. There has been steady growth since the pandemic.
In 2023, ARA interviewed 2,988 non-group visitors (exclusive of people who lived or worked in Lower Manhattan) at 14 locations. We coupled this survey data with visitor counts shared by Lower Manhattan institutions and businesses such as Statue Cruises, 9/11 Memorial Museum, One World Observatory, National Museum of the American Indian, Governors Island, Port Authority for the Oculus/Westfield World Trade Center, and South Street Seaport. ARA has ten locations where its Intelligent Digital Counting system powered by Exteros operates year-round. For this study, we utilized the visitor counts from the Charging Bull Sculpture on Lower Broadway and Wall Street at Broad Street (by the NYSE) sensors. We supplemented automated counts with hand counts at the 9/11 Memorial Grounds and Brookfield Place. To complete the picture, we obtained non-rush-hour passenger data from the Fulton Street station, which we adjusted – through onsite intercept surveys – for those (1) not living nor working in Lower Manhattan and (2) not planning to visit one of the attractions for which we already had visitor data.
GEOGRAPHIC ORIGIN OF VISITORS
INTERNATIONAL VISITATION TO LOWER MANHATTAN
