NYC revenue from Broadway visitors reached a showstopping $12 billion last year, and industry supporters and players are now taking bows for its tremendous impact on the city’s economy.
Shows on the Great White Way should be enjoying lots of curtain calls as the industry celebrates its own tonight with the Tony Awards, say officials of the Broadway League, a national trade association for theater. That’s because Broadway pays lots of taxes, provides 87,000 jobs and puts a half-billion dollars in city coffers in taxes, according to the League’s numbers from the 2012-2013 season.
“We’re important. Very important,” says Ken Davenport, a veteran producer who sings the praises of the industry in a Broadway blog. Davenport’s many credits include the recent hit “Kinky Boots.”
And Broadway makes many New York City cash registers sing, with the bulk of the theater business coming from people visiting town and frequently opening their wallets.
They’re what the industry calls “Broadway tourists,” people who say a big reason for visiting the city is to see a play. They often stay in city hotels, buy Broadway souvenirs and eat in the theater district, accounting for $9.6 billion in spending.
“People are coming from all over to experience something on Broadway that is unique,” said Charlotte St. Martin, executive director of the League. Spending in the $12 billion industry increased some 2 percent from the 2010-2011 season and 11 percent from the 2008-2009 season in constant dollars, the League reported.
Most of the some 11.5 million tickets sold last year at Broadway’s 40 theaters between 41th and 54th streets were bought by out-of-towners, with many of them coming from other countries, according to the report.
“Broadway is a major tourist attraction that motivates people to come to New York City,” Karen Hauser of the Broadway League wrote in the report. “In the 2012-2013 season, 9.6 million tickets were purchased by people who did not live in New York City.”
Broadway, city officials say, is one of the stars of New York City’s tourist industry. Tourism drew some 54.3 million visitors last year — a 50 percent increase compared with 2002 — and is expected to achieve a record 55 million visitors this year, according to NYC&Co., the city’s tourism agency.
“The city’s theater industry draws millions of visitors to New York City, creates jobs and drives important economic growth, elevating NYC’s status as a global capital of both commerce and culture. It is a vital and iconic element of the arts economy across the boroughs, and we look forward to its continued success,” said EDC spokeswoman Kate Blumm.
But while the recent Broadway numbers have been top shelf, that doesn’t mean that theater — as so many other businesses in the city that have risen and fallen — hasn’t gone through some hard times and couldn’t face them again.
Indeed, Davenport adds that the ticket numbers for the previous year have been good, but the long-term trends are challenging.
“Attendance has been relatively flat and grosses have been going up. That is not healthy for the long-term of any industry,” Davenport notes.
And what about the next generation?
Few young people are going to shows. Much of the core audience is dying or moving elsewhere, he adds. Davenport believes the city’s economic climate, including its high costs, is a challenge. He says city government should do more to help what is now a growing industry.
“All city politicians, from the bottom to the tippity-tippity top, should be seeing theater, talking about theater and helping to ensure that we’re around for a very, very long time,” he wrote in a recent blog.
“Sure we love what we do, and we all want to do it for a long time,” Davenport continued. “But it’s getting a little tougher with each passing year, and I’m afraid we’re going to lose some great folks to other entertainment industries if we don’t offer economic encouragement for them to stay.”