{"id":184386,"date":"2021-02-21T03:22:07","date_gmt":"2021-02-21T00:22:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/tourists-take-advantage-of-near-empty-nyc-tour-buses\/"},"modified":"2021-02-21T03:22:07","modified_gmt":"2021-02-21T00:22:07","slug":"tourists-take-advantage-of-near-empty-nyc-tour-buses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/tourists-take-advantage-of-near-empty-nyc-tour-buses\/","title":{"rendered":"#Tourists take advantage of near-empty NYC tour buses"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Tourists take advantage of near-empty NYC tour buses<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n

All aboard the ghost town tour. <\/p>\n

That was how a visiting couple took in the Big App<\/a>le on a recent frosty afternoon \u2014 the only two passengers of the once-popular hop-on, hop-off red buses.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have plenty of room,\u201d joked Kevin Ortiz, 38, as he huddled with his girlfriend Noemi, amid empty seats on top of the open-air double-decker ride, which chugged around Manhattan\u2019s all-but-abandoned streets and landmarks, giving them a private viewing. <\/p>\n

There wasn\u2019t even a tour guide to keep the pair company. Thanks to the pandemic, the buses now offer headsets for an audio-only option, but the Spanish-speaking couple, in town from Puerto Rico, didn\u2019t bother to tune in. <\/p>\n

The Ortizes, who live outside San Juan, were just happy to be in New York and didn\u2019t seem to mind the lonely journey. <\/p>\n

\"A
A group from Delaware ride a Big Bus Tours bus through Manhattan. <\/figcaption>
Stephen Yang<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s OK,\u201d said Ortiz.<\/p>\n

Later, a family of four visitors hopped on, gawking as they passed the Empire State Building and Wall Street and getting an unexpected view from the lofty perch: near emptiness in certain neighborhoods.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like a ghost town, isn\u2019t it?\u201d said Lorena Ortega, 15, of Severna Park, Maryland, as the bus glided serenely down an almost traffic-free Fifth Avenue. \u201cI kind of like it though. I\u2019m not sure if it\u2019ll be as fun to come back when it\u2019s crowded again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Tourism
Tourism in NYC has been diminished by COVID-19 with only a total of six people riding the normally busy bus service.<\/figcaption>
Stephen Yang<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ortega\u2019s aunt, Vikki Jenkins, 44, who brought the teen and two other nieces to the city for just one night, said she had been to New York before but decided on the spur of the moment to make the trip<\/a> with the girls.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re going to think this is what New York is really like,\u201d said Jenkins, laughing, as they took in the sites, pointing to buildings. <\/p>\n

Downstairs, the driver was asked how things were going. <\/p>\n

\"Kevin
Kevin Ortiz, 26, left, and Naomi Augusto, 36, right, of Puerto Rico, ride a largely empty Big Bus Tours bus.<\/figcaption>
Stephen Yang<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cHow do you think?\u201d he growled, and requested he not be identified in print. \u201cIt\u2019s supposedly heated down here but it gets pretty cold.\u201d<\/p>\n

The number of these once-ubiquitous buses has shrunk during the COVID crisis. <\/p>\n

City Sightseeing has closed temporarily, forced to partner with competitors like Big Bus. But even Big Bus has trouble filling seats \u2014 though it points out that the buses are rarely packed in the winter months.<\/p>\n

Mark, a Big Bus employee who was waiting for passengers for a final 4:30 p.m. trip around lower Manhattan, threw up his hands when it became clear no one was coming.<\/p>\n

\u201cCome back tomorrow morning,\u201d he said. \u201cWe might get a couple for the 9:30.\u201d\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#Tourists take advantage of near-empty NYC tour buses” All aboard the ghost town tour. That was how a visiting couple took in the Big Apple on a recent frosty afternoon \u2014 the only two passengers of the once-popular hop-on, hop-off red buses. \u201cWe have plenty of room,\u201d joked Kevin Ortiz, 38, as he huddled with…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":184387,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/02\/Lonely_Tourist_Bus_1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[94366,1146,1545,70344,71470,72675,71471],"class_list":["post-184386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-2-20-21","tag-buses","tag-coronavirus","tag-coronavirus-in-ny","tag-tourism","tag-tourists","tag-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}