On Wednesday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced he would be lifting the bar and restaurant curfew. What that means is that starting on Monday, May 17, bars and restaurants will be allowed to stay open past midnight if they offer outdoor service.

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Bars and restaurants which offer inside service will be allowed to stay open past midnight starting on Monday, May 31. No food will be required to be purchased in order to consume alcohol.

As New York State (slowly) begins to open back up, New York City is taking a good hard look at what it can do to bring in tourists. To say the city has had a rough year would be an understatement. The massive financial hit businesses there have taken in the last year due to all of the shutdowns, closures, and curfews have been catastrophic for many, especially the small mom and pop stores.

It's been said that in order to make money, money must be spent and even though the New York City tourism industry took a crippling hit, its tourism branch, NYC & Company will be debuting a $30 million tourism campaign in June. Oh, and this campaign is it's very largest ever.

NameD "NYC Awakens," the goal of the massive tourism campaign is to convince those who are leery of visiting that the city isn’t “dead” and that there are many things to do that can be done in a safe manner.

While the rest of the details of the campaign haven't been released, it should be interesting to see if people will make New York City a post (ish) pandemic destination and if businesses that are normally too expensive for the average person to afford outside of a special life event will offer discounts or special packages.

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