Dive Brief:

• Although overall New York City’s hotel industry is strong with high demand from domestic travelers, it “remains vulnerable” due to lagging international visitor numbers, according to a new report by State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. 
• Of the city’s 65 million visitors in 2025, the vast majority (52.4 million, or 81%) were domestic travelers, which was “close to full recovery of pre-pandemic numbers,” per the report. However, international visitors (12.5 million) were at 92.6% of their pre-pandemic numbers and were down from 2024, due in part to geopolitical disruptions as well as federal trade and immigration policies, per DiNapoli.
• Despite these challenges, “we expect the sector to continue to grow,” DiNapoli said in a statement. However, “a complete recovery requires a return of international visitors and increased employment to keep up with demand.”

Dive Insight:

While New York City hotels have mostly recovered from the pandemic, the industry “could be doing even better if international visitors returned more quickly,” DiNapoli said in the July 16 report. 

“The Comptroller’s report confirms what the hotel industry has been saying for years: we have yet to recover from the pandemic, and we are still thousands of jobs and millions of visitors below where we were,” Vijay Dandapani, president and CEO of the Hotel Association of New York City, said in a statement. 

Nonetheless, New York City’s hotel industry has “met the strong demand from domestic leisure visitors” with the number of rooms increasing 16.7% from 2014 to 2024 — higher than the national growth of 13.6%, per the report. Additionally, New York City is expected to add 4,852 new hotel rooms this year, leading the country in hotel construction for the second year in a row. 

Employment numbers, meanwhile, have “recovered more slowly than guests,” per the report. In 2025, there were 45,325 hotel workers in total, still 12.9% fewer than in 2019. 

Rich Maroko, president of the Hotel & Gaming Trades Council, said in a statement that the report underscores “the critical role New York City's hotel industry plays in our economy.” 

“With tourism continuing to grow and more new hotels on the horizon than anywhere else in the country, we look forward to building on this momentum by creating more good paying jobs and ensuring the industry's continued success benefits the workers who make it possible,” Maroko said. 

In May, the Hotel Association of New York and the Hotel & Gaming Trades Council tentatively reached a deal for a new eight-year contract, featuring improved benefits and wage increases. 

In a statement at the time, Dandapani and Maroko said the new contract “will help preserve New York City’s status as a world class destination for tourists.”

This report comes after several organizations have shared concerns over dampened international tourism to the U.S. over the last year, due to ongoing geopolitical tensions and economic uncertainty. 

In June, however, CoStar and Tourism Economics held some optimism for recovery in international tourism and upgraded their U.S. hotel performance forecast, anticipating international inbound travel to increase 3.4% year over year for full-year 2026.

Final numbers for hotel performance during the 2026 FIFA World Cup could also provide insight on international tourism, including how many people outside of the U.S. visited New York City during the tournament.