NYC & Company launches neighborhood initiative pushing tourists out of midtown

Did a travel startup trend just make its way up to the New York City’s mayor office?

We reported last November that the online travel industry had a growing obsession with neighborhood content. Airbnb had just launched its Neighborhoods guides and Hipmunk had updated its hotel search with a neighborhood filter.

Well this morning, Mayor Bloomberg, apparently three months late to the party, announced New York City’s Neighborhood x Neighborhood campaign encouraging tourists to get out of midtown.

Each month NYC & Company will promote the restaurants, shops, activities, and attractions of a new neighborhood located in one of New York’s five boroughs.

The goal of the campaign is to “broaden the common perception of our City while disbursing visitor spending among our local businesses,” says  NYC & Company CEO George Fertitta.

This is the consumer-facing side of NYC & Company’s neighborhood-specific tourism tool kits shared with industry insiders at ITB Berlin last week.

Airbnb’s and Hipmunk’s features were admittedly more of a content strategy than an economic initiative, but the neighborhood theme remains constant.

The first neighborhoods to be featured by this monthly program are Bushwick, Fort Greene and Williamsburg, Brooklyn.