Bed Bugs and the effect on Tourism

The bedbugs in New York City are crawling out of peoples bed’s and making their way into landmark buildings such as the Empire State Building, Bloomingdale’s and Lincoln Center, causing a lot of unnecessary stress among tourists who are now feeling anxious and canceling vacations to Big Apple planned for the height of the holiday season.

Hotel Room

Most travelers who had already planned their trips to New York say they are totally freaking out about staying in hotels and visiting local attractions since newspaper’s and television reports of bedbugs seem to be blowing up every few days. Some officials from Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration office are concerned about the effect these bed bugs are having on the city’s image and $30 billion tourism industry.

The findings of pests at these landmarked places are often not heavily reported and made too public. Bloomingdale’s reported finding exactly one bug in the famous department store, the Empire State Building had them in the basement and Lincoln Center’s were in a dressing room.

However discoveries such as those, together with bedbug findings in movie theaters, hotels and clothing chain stores, are causing these weary travelers to postpone or even cancel their trips planned months ago.

One tourist said she will not vacation in Manhattan next month with her kids, as they do every year around the holidays to do some Christmas shopping, or to watch a Broadway show and see the Radio City Christmas show.

Museum

Another tourist said she would rather forfeit the money spent on reservations for a trip to New York City in December. This tourist is already used to checking the hotel rooms for bedbugs and usually does this when visiting New York even before the bed bug craze. But this tourist is now overwhelmed at the idea that the bugs have spread beyond hotels.

Even New York city natives that live in the suburbs of Manhattan feel threatened to even stay at any of Manhattan’s hotels for the night.

Sightings of bed bugs, which are almost the size of a poppy seed, have sky rocketed in New York and around the world in the last 2 years. Even bed bug specialist still do not know what is the cause for this sudden spread, some experts think that an increase in global travel and the banning of certain pesticides may be partly responsible.

It is a known fact that bed bugs are difficult to get rid of. They hide in many more places than your bedroom, they can also live for a whole year without feeding.

Town

The city’s tourism agency, NYC & Company, say they have not noticed any mass cancellations due to these blood sucking critters. But officials said “some New York hotels, museums and other attractions that depend on tourists have told the administration they are concerned the bedbug rumors will scare travelers away.”

Even though tourism officials are watching the situation closely, they are trying to decide how to address the public relations side of it.

Even New Yorker City dwellers are feeling more freaked out about doing regular activities such as like shopping, going to the movies or even just going to work, since the reports on bed bugs have spread to office buildings and schools.

Hotel Room

TripAdvisor, an online travel site where travelers may review FAQ’s and check out reviews, said there has seen a 12 percent increase in New York City 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 almost impossible to fully measure just how bad the problem has gotten, partly because of bedbug disgrace which in turn creates the lack of solid data about confirmed infestations.

If you ever have any bug related issues in New York City, feel free to call us either at Beyond Pest Control. Once again, and I can’t stress this enough we are on call twenty four hours a day seven days a week to kill those bugs, we aren’t kidding whether you call us at 9 am or midnight we will be available to take your call and either get rid of the bug infestation, or answer any questions you may have concerning the bug issue. I can honestly guarantee that there will be someone to answer that call. We make it our business to make you bug free!

For more information check out the rest of our site and You can also from time to time find helpful hints on http://nypestpro.blogspot.com.

Beyond Pest Control.

Our pest control specialists service all NYC boroughs, including Queens, Brooklyn, Bronx, Manhattan, Long Island (both Nassau & Suffolk counties), Staten Island and even both Westchester & Rockland counties.