The coronavirus pandemic exacerbated and exposed a crisis in excessive hotel building in New York City, the exiting hotel workers’ union president said Wednesday evening.
“There’s no way the city can absorb this insane amount of inventory,” said Hotel and Motel Trades Council President Peter Ward said in an interview on Inside City Hall. “In many respects, these are self-inflicted wounds.”
Ward, who represents nearly 40,000 employees, argued the city is overloaded with hotels, which are saddled with debt. By his count, the city had about 65,000 hotel rooms when Mayor Mike Bloomberg left office. The number now is around 135,000.
As a result of there being more rooms than demand, he assessed, that gluttony of hotel rooms has resulted in vast numbers of them being turned into homeless shelters. In the past ten years, of hotel rooms in Brooklyn and Queens, 60 percent are now shelters, according to the union boss.
“They simply never could and never will be able to operate as profitable hotels,” Ward told NY1 Political Anchor Errol Louis.
The hospitality industry overall has been devastated by the pandemic. Despite New York City’s COVID-19 infection rate hovering around 1 to 2 percent for months, people remain wary of transmission and are not visiting the city in large numbers. The tourism sector has all but vanished. Would-be foreign visitors who would fill the hotel rooms and bring in revenue are not traveling, or are prohibited by their home countries because of the United States’s sky-high infection rate.
As a result, roughly 70 percent of all hotels workers in the country have been furloughed or laid off.
“This is, by far and away, the biggest crisis the hospitality industry has ever faced,” Ward said.
According to him, the best-case scenario — if COVID-19 is contained and a vaccine is distributed in early 2021 — would be a recovery for New York City’s economy in 2022. In his mind, then, the city’s economic future is highly tied into how the United States tackles the virus going forward, and thereby potentially jumpstarting tourism and breathing life back into the hospitality industry.
Ward, however, won’t be in the union to see it: he announced Wednesday he was leaving the Hotel and Motel Trades Council after 41 years, including 25 s the president. He said he intended to leave around St. Patrick’s Day but delayed it due to the pandemic. Now, he plans to spend more time with his family and do consulting work before retiring.
------
Watch the full interview above.
------
Did you know you can now watch, read and stay informed with NY1 wherever and whenever you want? Get the new Spectrum News app here.
------
Looking for an easy way to learn about the issues affecting New York City?
Listen to our "Off Topic/On Politics" podcast: Apple Podcasts | Google Play | Spotify | iHeartRadio | Stitcher | RSS
-----
Further Coronavirus Coverage
What to Do If You Test Positive for COVID-19
Who Will Get a Coronavirus Vaccine First — And Who Decides?
How Hospitals Protect Against the Spread of Coronavirus
Coronavirus Likely Spreads Without Symptoms
Coronavirus: The Fight to Breathe
Experts Say Masks Are Still a Must
The Race for a Coronavirus Vaccine
The U.S. May Face a Second Wave of Coronavirus Infections
Cuomo Granted Broad New Powers as New York Tackles Coronavirus
"hotel" - Google News
August 13, 2020 at 08:59AM
https://ift.tt/3fNYiwA
Union Boss: Coronavirus Showed Hotel Overbuilding Crisis - Spectrum News NY1
"hotel" - Google News
https://ift.tt/3aTFdGH
https://ift.tt/2xwvOre
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Union Boss: Coronavirus Showed Hotel Overbuilding Crisis - Spectrum News NY1"
Post a Comment