Will New York Tourism Grow Exponentially Due to Same-sex Marriages?

Will New York Tourism Grow Exponentially Due to Same-sex Marriages?

New York has recently become the sixth state to make same-sex marriages legal. Since then, wedding planners and wedding venues have felt a sharp increase in business, with 800 couples getting married within hours after the law had been passed on July 24th. As the new legal system of the state settles in, what will it mean to the travel industry and event planning businesses in the already popular among travelers city?

High profile weddings, such as Bill White, the former president of the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in New York, and commercial insurance broker Bryan Eure that’s scheduled for late September are only the first wave. Their famous guest list, which includes Bill and Hillary Clinton, Barbara Walters, George W. Bush and General David Petraeus, will definitely set a trend for other same-sex couples that will want to follow in their footsteps.

The wedding boom that’s expected to keep hitting the city will definitely result in many guests booking stays at local hotels, taking over the shops and stores where couples are registered, sampling the culinary delights of New York restaurants, and mixing the wedding activities with some old fashion touristy perks, visiting everything that the city has to offer.

Will New York Tourism Grow Exponentially Due to Same-sex Marriages?

In the US, same sex marriages are performed in six states, Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and the recently added New York, and in the District of Columbia. They are also recognized but not performed in New Jersey, Maryland, and Rhode Island (also in California, depending on certain circumstances).  Worldwide only ten countries fully embrace same-sex unions, Argentina, Belgium, Canada, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, South Africa, and Sweden.