Placer.ai: Tourists and foot traffic are on the rise in Lower Manhattan
Traffic is clawing its way back in the nation’s most densely populated and tourist-visited urban patch.
According to Placer.ai, during the third quarter of 2023, foot traffic in Lower Manhattan was off just 15.1% of what it was during the same quarter in 2019, while overall Manhattan visits were down by 22.5%. But Lower Manhattan’s surge is fueled by weekend traffic patterns.
On Mondays through Thursdays, traffic in New York City’s southern portion was 21.1% below pre-COVID levels—not far from 26.1% dip in Manhattan as a whole. Weekends however, told quite another story.
On Saturdays, the East Village, West Village and Lower East Side saw traffic rise by 20% or more-- in some cases exceeding pre-pandemic levels. Chinatown was up by 19.4% and Greenwich Village by 17.5%.
Affluent new residents continue to pay high prices to live in the Big Apple. In July, Miller Samuel and Douglas Elliman reported that Manhattan rents hit a record level of $5,588—a rise of 9% over 2022. Yet the borough’s population dropped by 400,000 between June 2020 and June 2022.
Offices, too, remain severely understaffed. Kastle Systems reported that they were just 48% occupied at the end of July. Manhattan added 17,472 residents in 2022, but that represented just a 1% increase from the previous year.
What this could indicate is that tourists are returning to New York in a big way. Placer.ai reported that hotel visits in Manhattan are at about 90% what they were in 2019.
“Manhattan, it has been said, is where the future comes to rehearse. And the weekend revival that has been taking root throughout some of the city’s most beloved neighborhoods may be a further indication that cities are here to stay,” said Placer.ai analyst Lila Margalit.