Bedbugs start to bite New York's tourist trade
A plague of bedbugs hitting New York has now become so bad that tourists are cancelling holidays.
Some travellers say they are worried about staying in hotels and visiting attractions as new reports of bedbugs seem to pop up every few days.
And officials in Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration are concerned about the effect on the city’s image and $30bn (€21.5bn) tourism industry.
The discoveries of pests at high-profile places are often not full-blown infestations, and do not necessarily occur in public areas. Bloomingdale’s reported finding exactly one bug in the famous department store, the Empire State Building had them in the basement and Lincoln Centre’s were in a dressing room.
But those reports, along with bedbug discoveries in cinemas, hotels and clothing chain stores, are causing travellers to call off trips planned months ago.
Industry professionals – who have privately told city officials that they are nervous about bedbugs hurting New York’s reputation – say publicly that they are not aware of any bedbug-related cancellations. But several would-be tourists said they were aborting their trips because they fear the bugs.
“It sounds like you can get them anywhere, any time of day and not know it until you get home,” said Patty Majerik, from Baltimore.
She said she may not travel to Manhattan next month with her children, aged seven and 10, as they do every year to Christmas shop.
“I’ve got four people travelling on a train, in cabs, going to stores and theatres, and they could be in any of these places? I hate to say it, but I doubt we’re going to come this time,” she said.
Suzanne Baldwin said she was forfeiting money spent on reservations for a November trip to New York from her home in Florida. She had already grown accustomed to checking hotel rooms for bedbugs – and has done so in New York before – but she is now overwhelmed at the idea that the bugs have spread beyond hotels.
“We thought long and hard about this trip,” she said. “However, we decided, knowing we would lose quite a bit of money from non-refundable tickets, it was not worth the worry.”
Susannah Johnston, a yoga teacher who lives in the New York suburbs, said she and her husband wanted to stay overnight in Manhattan last weekend after attending a late concert, but bedbugs thwarted their plans.
“We started researching hotels and prices, and then we read the reviews,” she said. “Every one of the hotels we were considering had a guest horror story regarding bedbugs.”
Sightings of the rust-coloured bugs, which are about the size of an apple seed, have surged in New York and around the United States in recent years. It is not known what caused their sudden spread, but experts have theorised that an increase in global travel and the banning of certain pesticides may be partly responsible.
Bedbugs are famously difficult to eradicate; they hide in many more places than beds and can go for a year without feeding.
The city’s tourism agency, NYC & Company, said it has not seen mass cancellations because of bedbug fears. But officials said some New York hotels, museums and other attractions that depend on tourists have told the administration they are concerned the bedbug rumours will scare travellers away.
Tourism officials are keeping an eye on the situation, and are trying to decide how to address the public relations side of it.
The online travel site TripAdvisor, where travellers post reviews and ask questions of other tourists, said it has seen a 12% increase in New York posts referencing bedbugs. The site compared the first eight months of 2010 with the same period the previous year.
City officials and experts say it is difficult to fully measure the extent of the problem, partly because of bedbug stigma and the lack of solid data about confirmed infestations.
