NYC & Company Webinars Highlight Black Borough Culture

NYC & Company has launched “All In NYC: Embracing Diversity,” a business-to-business webinar series for groups including travel and tourism stakeholders, with “Intro to Black Travel,” the first of six webinars highlighting Black culture.

The series will explore sites and stories across New York City’s five boroughs that “showcase the strength of New York’s tourism and hospitality industry,” for groups including travel professionals, said NYC & Company officials.

The webinars will also highlight the diversity of communities and businesses across New York’s five boroughs with representatives from BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) neighborhoods and enterprises participating in each webinar.

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“New York City’s rich diversity, infinite experiences and the immutable spirit of its people make this destination unlike any other,” said Fred Dixon, NYC & Company’s CEO. “Ensuring that tourism’s recovery and its future is inclusive is a top priority, and this important series will give travel professionals insight and information needed to promote and speak to NYC in ways that are equitable, inclusive and authentic.”

The first three webinars in the series are intended to “create space for honest conversations that uplift Black voices, share the lived experience of Black New Yorkers and build meaningful alliances across the global tourism and hospitality industry,” said Dixon.

“Black in the Tourism Industry,” slated for January 7, will explore the experiences of four Black tourism executives and provide “must-know info” on Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, one of New York’s largest Black communities.

On February 4, “Rich Cultural Heritage” will discuss Black cultural experiences in NYC, including the history of Seneca Village. Participants will also meet members of the Flatbush Brooklyn Caribbean community.

The series’ initial webinar focused on MMGY Travel's Black Traveler: Insights, Opportunities & Priorities report, which found Black U.S. leisure travelers spent $109.4 billion on travel in 2019. Black travelers generated 458.2 million stays last year, representing more than 13 percent of the U.S. leisure travel market.

“I was extremely excited about the research and the results,” said Martinique Lewis, president of the Black Travel Alliance, which collaborated with MMGY to produce the Black Traveler study. “The $109 billion figure is a monstrous number and I know that numbers are what win the attention of the travel industry,” she said.

“It is the initiative we’ve been trying to push, that Black people are travelers and they are spending.”

The December 3 webinar also highlighted New York’s Harlem community, the best-known of the city’s Black communities, another must-visit community for travelers interested in learning more about and experiencing New York’s historic Black culture.