Tour guides chafe at new limits on Liberty, Ellis islands

The Statue of Liberty, one of New York's most visited attractions, has put restrictions on commercial guided tours on Liberty Island to prevent overcrowding, as it opened a new museum last week.

Under the new rules, the tours will be banned inside the statue's sixth-floor pedestal observation, the new Statue of Liberty Museum and the Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration, which is part of the national monument overseen by the National Park Service (NPS.)

"Commercial guided tours add to the congestion in these identified areas … prevent the free flow of visitor movement and impact public programs and the visitor experience," Jerry Willis, spokesman for NPS, said in a statement. "The restrictions were put in place as a necessary response to the 600 percent increase in commercial tours over the last 10 years.

"This massive increase has resulted in the need to alleviate the mounting overcrowding and conflicts with National Park Service programming and operations," Willis said.

Though only about 4 percent of travelers use the commercial tours, the large groups often result in overcrowding, blocked pathways and exhibits and other issues, the NPS said.

Tour guides around New York City have criticized the exclusions, saying they will result in lost jobs and "negatively impact the visitor experience".

"They [NPS] claim this was in response to an overcrowding problem and a safety and security issue. But if you look at what they've said to the media and what they've issued in their statement – they said it was really just a reaction to a few poor guys who are behaving badly," Michael Morgenthal, a tour guide and a member of the Guides Association of New York City, told China Daily on Sunday. "So, to us, this was a tremendous overreaction."

Morgenthal said the association estimated that guided tours represent only about 4 percent of visitors to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. "Most people just go on their own, so putting these restrictions in (on) 4 percent of the people doesn't seem like it really will solve the problems they say," he added.

"We estimate that this could end up costing tour guides as much as $2 million in income in the first year that the rules are in effect," Morgenthal said, adding that it's still too early to see the impact because most tour guides are independent contractors working for tour companies – they are the ones who ultimately are going to see if there's a change in customer response.

He also added that the NPS solution will degrade the visitor experience because licensed and experienced tour guides can provide more detailed information than the audio guide provided by the NPS, and the information is more up to date.

"And sometimes they run out of audio guides, and also, the audio guides only have about 12 languages. But our association has tour guides (who) do tours in at least 28 languages," Morgenthal added. "So what's going to happen to the people from those 16 other languages who don't have an audio guide and don't have a tour guide who speaks their languages? They're being excluded."

"New Yorkers like to complain about tourists, but the economic impact of tourism to New York City is undeniable and indispensable," said Michael Dillinger, president of the Guides Association of New York City.

He said that in 2017, travel and tourism generated $44.2 billion in spending in the city, and was responsible for $26.1 billion in income and 391,400 jobs, according to NYC & Company, the official visitors bureau for New York City.

"We will continue to discuss the new rules with NPS in the hopes of allowing tours access to the inside of these sites. In the meantime, we have instructed all of our members to comply with the new regulations and urge all licensed New York City tour guides to do the same," Dillinger added.

Along with tourism in New York City — which has risen steadily for the last decade to a record 65.2 million visitors in 2018 — the number of tour guides also has grown in recent years. There are about 3,350 sightseeing guides licensed by the city.

The Statue of Liberty was one of the biggest attractions for the more than 65 million visitors to New York City in 2018. About 80 percent of the city's tourists are Americans, but the 20 percent who hail from other countries accounted for about half the $45 billion in tourist dollars spent in the city last year.

China sends more than 1 million visitors to New York City each year, surpassed only by Great Britain and Canada.

"They need us because most of our customers don't understand English well," said Cole Chen, a Chinese tour guide who leads tours for visitors from the Chinese mainland on Liberty Island and Ellis Island. "And most of my customers are senior people — we call them 'sunset tour groups' — they need special assistance from us sometimes."

Chen, who has been guiding tours to the two islands for more than two years, said the new rules will have a negative impact on tour guides and visitors who need translation and other special assistance when they visit the sites.