NYCVP’s Cohen Says New York City Positive for 2009

“New York City will be a major destination for American travelers in 2009,” claims Joel Cohen, Vice President of New York City Vacation Packages. “Although vacation travel in general will be affected by the economic situation worldwide, many signs point to New York City as being very attractive as an alternative to other leisure travel markets.”

Cohen is convinced that Americans will continue to travel. “People will not give up vacation travel. They may not go as far, stay as long or spend as much, but they certainly will not give up their vacation. I believe that people will want to go to a destination where they can pack a lot into a little less time.” New York, Cohen maintains, fits that description perfectly.

He cites the many historical, cultural, educational and entertainment venues in the City that families, couples, seniors, honeymooners and groups would find attractive. “When I think about what a vacationer can do in New York City in 4 or 5 days, I know it will result in a vacation full of memories - much more so than lying on a beach ,” Cohen continued. “75 museums, 50 sightseeing tours, 2 skyscraper observation decks, the Statue of Liberty, Broadway performances, the world’s largest store, harbor cruises, comedy clubs, TV and movie sites, 9 professional major sports teams, horse-drawn carriage rides, famous restaurants – New York City really can be a perfect destination.”

New York City may have had a reputation for being expensive, but Cohen says that’s not the case any longer. He says that with the advice of a good travel agent, potential travelers can find a real value. Here is how a travel agent could advise a would-be New York City vacationer:

• Take advantage of seasonal pricing. Hotel rooms are often more than 50% discounted during “low” seasons, typically January, February, July, August, Christmas week and certain holidays like Easter weekend, Memorial Day and Labor Day.


• Plan a New York City trip well in advance. Hotel rates have dropped considerably due to the decrease in European visitors, but that might only be temporary. Take advantage now of low rates by locking them in now.


• Look for “smart pricing” opportunities, such as weekend versus midweek rates and tour packages that include free meaningful features and dine-around plans.


• Understand the importance of air and rail service. When other leisure destinations are experiencing severe cutbacks in air service, New York City is not. Rates to New York City will remain competitive and available.

Cohen further urges travel agents to align themselves with a good New York City tour operator. “New York City can be a complicated destination to sell because of the many varied options available. However it also is a very profitable destination for the same reason. You can put a virtual New York City expert in your office by relying on a specialized tour company like New York City Vacation Packages. We can provide customized vacation plans for you and your clients, and everything will be commissionable.”

Contact New York City Vacation Packages at 877 NYC-TRiP or visit nyctrip.com.

It ain't home

I was recently in Los Angeles on a brief business trip.

I didn't mind the long flight. I didn't mind avocado and sprouts with every meal. I didn't even mind the long drives on the freeways just to get from Point A to Point A(1).

What I did mind was the Neil Diamond song going through my head from the moment I arrived until the moment I left.

I'm not a big Neil Diamond fan. I know he's sold a lot of records, made some movies and entertained millions. Just not me (although truth be told, it's hard not to react in some dopey way to Sweet Caroline).

But when a song reverberates in my brain for days it's pure hell. It wasn't even the whole song either, just a few lines. Over and over again, like a tremendously awful version of Groundhog Day.

L.A.'s fine, but it ain't home —

New York's home but it ain't mine no more

They were the words. It pains me to think that my writing includes two instances of "ain't" and a double negative to boot. Too bad there's no ending preposition (my mother-in-law says that's something up with which she will not put).

What was it about Los Angeles that forced those lyrics into me? Why couldn't it have been Gladys Knight instead of Neil Diamond?

L.A. proved too much for the man,

So he's leavin' the life he's come to know,

He said he's goin' back to find

Ooh, what's left of his world,

The world he left behind

Not so long ago.

He's leaving,

On that midnight train to Georgia,

And he's goin' back

To a simpler place and time.

Strong, meaningful words sung so soulfully. And those Pips. Who doesn't love those Pips? Woo Woo.

But I regress.

I do know why those words pervaded my soul. L.A. is fine, but it could never be my home. L.A.'s not New York. Never will be. Probably doesn't want to be. L.A.'s got its good features. Weather. Lots of highways. Weather.

But what it doesn't have is character. Real character. "You talkin' to me?" character. Fuggedaboudit.

New York is pastrami, pizza and bagels. L.A. is quiche (and "pizza" created by an Austrian named Puck).

New York is Broadway, De Niro and Sinatra. L.A. is TV.

New York is a crazy taxi ride. L.A. is a stretch Hummer.

L.A. has Beverly Hills, Bel Air and Santa Monica. New York has Hell's Kitchen.

L.A. has Catalina Island. New York has Coney Island.

New York has the Statue of Liberty. L.A. has a statue of George Tirebiter (true!).

L.A. has the Oscars presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. New York has Nathan's International July Fourth Hot Dog Eating Contest. OK, I'll give that one to L.A.

New York is style. L.A. is stylized.

I sat in a tony (definitely an L.A. word) al fresco wine bar where I couldn't order a glass of wine unless I also ordered food. The signs on every lamppost cautioned neer-do-wells "Skateboarding, rollerblades, bicycles and smoking prohibited." Outside, on the street, skateboarding, rollerblades, bicycles and smoking were prohibited. Try and get away with that in New York.

6am on a Saturday morning I hiked the one block from my hotel to Starbucks. People on all 4 corners waiting for the light to change so they could cross the street. Not a car in sight, I did what anyone in New York would do. I got such looks, and even a comment from someone. It ain't home.

Yes, I know. L.A. is the TV and movie capital. So all those great TV shows are taped in L.A. You know - Seinfeld, Friends, Sex and the City, Law & Order, 30 Rock, The King of Queens, Hill Street Blues, Cosby, Taxi, NYPD Blue, Will & Grace. Try and imagine any of those shows without the character of New York.

I do have friends and colleagues who live in L.A. and love L.A. Even some who once lived in New York and prefer to stay in California. It's just not for me. But at least that song's gone from my head now.

Lower Manhattan - Part 3

I met Tony Di Sante in January 2002. New York City Vacation Packages, the company I work for, arranged several overnight bus excursions into the City for folks in the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton area of Pennsylvania. The plan was to test a new sightseeing tour with these vacationers. We hired Tony, a licensed New York City tour guide, to escort the group to Lower Manhattan and visit not only Ground Zero, but also the highlights of this historic downtown area.

Although I had worked in Lower Manhattan in 1969 and 1970, I knew very little about the area. I do remember watching the construction of the Twin Towers, and I remember seeing a ticker tape parade for the Apollo 11 astronauts who landed on the moon. Other than that, I can only recall how vibrant and lively Lower Manhattan was from 9am to 5pm weekdays, and how quiet and desolate it was at other times.

After the tragedy, however, Lower Manhattan became a "must-see" for visitors. No longer were the streets empty after hours. Especially on weekends, the area around Ground Zero was always crowded. This is what prompted us to offer this new, controversial tour taking visitors from Midtown Manhattan to Lower Manhattan.

The beauty of the tour wasn't in just taking people to Ground Zero. That might have been the original intention, but it became apparent to me that there was so much history and so many stories throughout Lower Manhattan that made the tour interesting, relevant, educational and stimulating.

It was Tony Di Sante who, along with company President Barry Tenenbaum, planned the itinerary to showcase not just Ground Zero, but also St. Paul’s Chapel, the Woolworth Building, City Hall, Trinity Church, Wall Street, Bowling Green and Federal Hall.

Tony’s matter-of-fact style worked well, especially during the always emotional visit to Ground Zero. He would speak to the group at several brief stops after exiting the subway, but once he reached his previously scouted-out location for the day’s best view of the tragic site, he was always quiet.

Not so quiet, though, when he led everyone down Broadway to Trinity Church, then across Wall Street to Federal Hall and a close-up view of the New York Stock Exchange. That’s when the real narrative began – the race to build the world’s tallest building, the site of the City’s first terrorist attack some 80 years earlier, the buttonwood tree, the sculpture that mysteriously appeared in front of the Stock Exchange one morning; then the story of the Hamilton-Burr duel and what it meant to Trinity Church, and how the world’s tallest building in 1913 was paid for in nickels and dimes. All of a sudden the area came alive. Its history, from a Native American trading spot to the inauguration of the nation’s first president, to a virtual skyscraper museum, to the tragedies of 1920 and 2001, was real.

Lower Manhattan has certainly changed in the almost 40 years since I was one of the million or so who worked in that area. The Charging Bull, the Bronze Sphere, the new Sports Museum of America, South Street Seaport, the world’s most unique McDonalds – it’s definitely worth a day or more on any visitor’s itinerary. Especially if you could spend part of that day with Tony Di Sante.

The best resource on the web for planning your next New York City vacation - www.nyctrip.com!

Watch my Travel Agent Training Video - Best of New York - on youtube.com.

Lower Manhattan - Part 2

It was an atypically warm Saturday in November. There was a bit of a breeze when we exited the subway, but what we noticed was the odor in the air.

Neither of us knew what to expect, so we weren't surprised by the crowds. We were surprised, though, that even after seven weeks had passed the air was thick and the odor unlike anything we had ever experienced. Someone was handing out dust masks, which my wife put on immediately.

Not knowing where to go, we just followed the crowds. At each corner we'd peer to the right, straining to see through the hordes of people. We'd catch glimpses of twisted metal or crushed concrete until we'd snake and inch our way to the front of the masses; there, separated from the activity by a police barricade, we got a better view of the horror.

Just why we went to Lower Manhattan that November day, I really can't say. Why we had to get to the front for a better view, I can't say either. Nor can I speak for the tens of thousands others doing the same. What I know is we had to go.

Several firemen, dirty and exhausted, answered questions as they stood on the other side of the barricade. I remember I wasn't interested in what they were saying because they didn't have the answer to the only question I had. No one had the answer. Even today, 7 years later, no one has the answer.

St. Paul's Chapel, just one block away, somehow escaped damage. It became both a sanctuary for the firemen, police and rescue workers, as well as a makeshift memorial (it's wrought iron fence became the perfect gallery walls for some of the most touching, most emotional and most heartbraking artwork one would ever see). The Reverend Lyndon Harris of St. Paul's put into words the importance of the historic church during this trying time. "Emerging at St. Paul’s was a dynamic I think of as a reciprocity of gratitude, a circle of thanksgiving—in which volunteers and rescue and recovery workers tried to outdo each other with acts of kindness and love, leaving both giver and receiver changed. This circle of gratitude was infectious."

Outside the chapel it was the silence that was infectious. All of these people and not a sound. Very few spoke, and then only in hushed whispers. There was nothing anyone could say. The scene, the St. Paul's memorials, the thought of the horror less than two months earlier, the stories of heroism, the rescue and recovery efforts of the volunteers, the thousands of innocent victims, the overriding question "Why?" - no single person would dare compete by speaking. There was a lot of crying though. Silent, keep-to-yourself crying. The kind of crying that doesn't make you feel better. The kind of crying that lasts forever.

To be continued ...

Lower Manhattan

With the neon and hyper-activity of Midtown Manhattan, it's easy to overlook the historical significance of Lower Manhattan.

For most of the latter half of the 20th century, Lower Manhattan was simply "the financial district." Wall Street, the New York Stock Exchange, World Trade Center, Woolworth Building, Federal Reserve. Commerce was the main draw. When the banks and exchanges closed in the late afternoon, everyone went home. The streets that were lined with (literally) millions at noon were empty at night and on weekends.

My most vivid memory of Lower Manhattan was seeing a ticker tape parade honoring the astronauts who first landed on the moon in 1969. It was an incredible event. Millions of onlookers, tons of confetti and ticker tape (who knows what that is any more?), and an hour after the parade passed by my building at 25 Broadway, the streets were clean and there wasn't any evidence of the event.

The only historical significance to me was that during the 2 years I worked in Lower Manhattan I watched the construction of the World Trade Center Twin Towers.

Then came the tragedy.

In its aftermath the focus changed. People were drawn to Lower Manhattan, particularly to the site of the former Twin Towers. For whatever reason, the area became known as Ground Zero not just as a geo-militaristic term but also as a geo-tourism term.

As Mayor Giuliani encouraged visitors to come to New York City, to support the City, to help the City rebuild economically, tourists arrived in droves. They stayed in Midtown, but for the first time that I know of, they wanted to visit Lower Manhattan. They needed to see, to pray, to pay respects, to seek closure, to get mad, to cry, to blame, to ask questions for which there were no answers. Regardless of their motives they converged on Lower Manhattan and Ground Zero.

Our company, New York City Vacation Packages, was (and still is) 100% invested in New York City tourism. For several months following the tragedy visitors who responded to the Mayor's plea asked our help in getting them to Lower Manhattan.

In March of 2002 we decided to hire an experienced tour guide, Tony DiSante, and operate a FREE tour from Midtown Manhattan to Ground Zero and Lower Manhattan. Tony, himself a resident of Lower Manhattan, had familiarity with the area both before and after the tragedy and conducted a respectful mission to the scene of the tragedy, as well as to many of the other sites in Lower Manhattan.

On our first such tour on that sunny but chilly Saturday morning in March 2002, we were accompanied by a reporter and photographer from a New York newspaper, a CNN film crew and reporter, and about a dozen or so tourists who paid nothing for the tour - it was after all a FREE tour.

CNN ran a mostly factual 8-minute feature on the tour later that afternoon.

The newspaper, however, never quite got the story right. According to the article in the newspaper, we were charging $1,900 for the tour! And since the incorrect story was picked up by the wire services, I got plenty of emails and phone calls when the story appeared in USA Today and many local papers.

I spent the next several months explaining the true story to newspapers and on radio talk shows. "No," I'd say, "We're not charging $1,900 for a tour. It's FREE. Tourists are asking for help getting to Lower Manhattan and we're arranging it for them AT OUR COST."

My most trying time was responding to questions from author, sports writer and radio talk show host Mitch Albom. "We are not profiting from the tragedy," I told him after he accused us of doing what we knew our hearts would never let us do. But he has an audience to entertain.

His last remark to me was, "The market will decide if what you are doing is right."

Mitch, the market decided. We still operate the tour. In fact, not long after appearing on Albom's radio show, I had the pleasure of escorting three private tours for the entire staff of the City's convention and visitors bureau.

I learned a lot about the media from that sunny Saturday in March. I learned a lot, too, about Lower Manhattan from Tony DiSante. I'll share that knowledge with you soon.

42nd Street

It was a pleasant drive in those days, from our home in Pennsylvania to the Big City. My father had bought his first brand new car, a 1954 Plymouth Savoy, which replaced his 1946 Pontiac that he had bought a few years earlier for $200, almost 2 weeks' salary.


The Plymouth made it to New York City in about 3 hours, its 4-40 climate control operating at full blast (that's 4 windows down at 40 mph - we didn't know from air conditioning in the '50s).


Traversing the Pennsylvania mountains and the New Jersey farmlands, the ride was certainly less than spectacular; that is, until we entered the Lincoln Tunnel. My mother kept an eye out for the markings on the tunnel wall - "There it is, there it is!" as she pointed. Indeed, there it was. Written on the wall, just as she had told us for weeks, building our anticipation for this epic journey. The vertical line with "New York" on one side and "New Jersey" on the other. It was everything she had promised. For that fraction of a second, that miniscule moment of our lives, we were at the precise spot where New Jersey became New York. We discovered the secret of fire. We harnessed the atom. We cured measles. We were in New York.


Oh, how little it took to excite us then.


The Empire State Building. I don't remember any long lines; I don't remember the elevator; I don't remember if the weather was nice. I just remember walking around the Observation Deck in absolute awe. Looking down at the TOPS of big buildings. Seeing for miles in every direction. Could I see Pennsylvania? Dad said no, but I thought I saw my house. Past New Jersey.

Times Square. So many people. We stood on the corner of Broadway and 42nd Street. My Mom told me that if we stood there long enough we would see every famous person in the world. At the time I don't think I was interested in standing there long enough to see every famous person in the world, but I was absolutely fascinated by the signs in Times Square, particularly the Camel cigarette sign that blew smoke rings. While they scoured the crowds for famous people, I just stared at the smoke rings. Sadly, I learned how to blow smoke rings just like that sign did (but I'm now smoke-free for 145 days).


I recall that 42nd Street in the '50s was mostly movie theaters. Maybe there was more to it, but that one block between Broadway and 8th Avenue was so brightly lit, with every marquis dancing for attention. It seemed to me that the whole movie world must have started on 42nd Street and then moved around the corner and up Broadway. The lights of Times Square were bigger and brighter, but their fuse was lit on 42nd Street. To me, 42nd Street was the center of the New York universe. Even my favorite Camel sign was positioned so the best view of it was from 42nd Street.


All these memories came back to me last weekend. For perhaps the first time since the early '70s (the movies were "unique" in the '70s; the lights danced but the dance was a lot different) I walked on 42nd Street between Broadway and 8th Avenue. So much has changed that remains the same. The lights are even brighter but the fuse is elsewhere. The movie theaters are there, a monsterplex of 25 theaters on 11 floors. The obligatory gift shops and fast-foodaurants. 42nd Street has evolved but there's still one constant: 42nd Street is still the center of the universe.


There are attractions like Madame Tussaud's and Ripley's. There's the old New Amsterdam Theatre, the only remaining remnant of the 1990s disneyfication of the Street. Dave & Buster's sole New York City location just opened. BB King's Blues Club hosts some of the best musical acts in the City. And stuck in the middle of it all, somewhat hidden in the neon and color of the Street, is a Hilton hotel.


Maybe it's not what we'd call pure New York. Maybe it's gentrified and disneyfied and McDonafied. But it's glitz and glamour and neon. And it took me back 50 years. What's wrong with that?


The best resource on the web for planning your next New York City vacation - www.nyctrip.com!

Watch my Travel Agent Training Video - Best of New York - on youtube.com.

My Daughter's 16th

First published in May 2003 Travelsmart:

As I sat in the Nederlander Theatre waiting for the musical Rent to begin, I knew my 16-year old daughter Marley was excited about seeing *NSync’s Joey Fatone live on stage. She and I had, just a year earlier, camped out overnight at Rockefeller Plaza so she could see her favorite group perform for The Today Show.

Fatone has matured from boy-band to movies and Broadway stage. So has Marley. It wasn’t the presence of her pop idol that was memorable to her. It was the storyline and the music of Rent, a long-running show with undercurrents of homosexuality, Aids and other subjects that Dads don’t always like to talk about with their 16-year old daughters.

This day and this musical were special to me, more special than Cats or Grease or Blue Man Group. This day marked the transformation from childhood to adulthood. Not for Joey Fatone. Nor for Marley. For me.

Broadway has a way of doing that. A stimulating show. A late dinner, then a stroll through the crowds, past the sidewalk vendors, all the while talking about what we’ve just experienced. No doubt it was a memorable time for Marley. For me, an epiphany. I’m not the father of a kid anymore.

We’ve seen Urinetown, the Musical too. A surprise winner of multiple Tony Awards, it surprised me also. First, no bathroom jokes. Second, Marley understood the show’s allegory and appreciated its subtle humor.

There’s something on Broadway for everyone. Musicals, plays, dramas, comedies, dance … and each one will challenge your emotions and change your life in some way.

Newest Photos

Thought I'd thrill my loyal fans with my newest photos from my weekend in New York City July 18-20. Top to bottom:

1. World Trade Center area, now primarily a construction site.
2. 30 Rockefeller Center (30 Rock). It's not just a TV show, it's ... it's ... it's ... no, it's just a TV show.
3. 42nd Street. Not your father's 42nd Street. Not my father's 42nd Street.