Honda and Kreamer discuss bringing FanFest to NYC and capturing visitor spending
Honda says the original plan had FanFest in New Jersey, but the administration worked with the host committee to bring free FanFests to all five boroughs. Kreamer adds that New York City captured 70% of the region's $1.7 billion in visitor spending.
Can I add briefly?
So initially when we took office, the plan had been for there to be, the games would be in New Jersey and the FanFest would be in New Jersey as well.
And so one of the things our administration did was work with the FIFA host committee to bring FanFest to the five boroughs.
And so the 600,000 number of people who came
from outside of this region to New York City for the World Cup.
You know, they could have gone to New Jersey for the FanFest, and in the end, we had free FanFests across all five boroughs, which we feel really strongly did drive visitation and also spend across the five boroughs.
And that reminds me of a stat I meant to mention earlier.
To Maya's point, the city did capture 70% of visitor spending in the region.
Relative to New Jersey?
To the whole region.
So the whole region experienced $1.7 billion in visitor spending, and we got 70% of that.
So clear majority.