Purchase guidebooks to New York City or borrow them from your local library. Guidebooks will provide you with information about popular tourist destinations in the City. They will also give you a sense of what tourists are told about the City, and encouraged to do in it. Reading the guidebooks is a good introduction to New York City tourism for you.
Create a list of tourist destinations that you plan to visit. To get a full perspective of tourism in New York City, you should visit famous, heavily visited tourist attractions and those that are off the beaten path.
Go to tourist attractions. Consider visiting: the Statue of Liberty, Times Square, the Empire State Building, Carnegie Hall, a Broadway show, Chinatown, the Guggenheim Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Madison Square Garden. Those attractions are all very famous New York City attractions and are likely listed in one of your guidebooks. Spend some time observing tourists at the destinations that you visit. Take a journal and write down your observations.
Go to famous New York City events that attract tourists. For example, many tourists flock to Times Square on New Year's Eve. Other popular tourist events include: the New York City Marathon and the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Continue to observe tourists that you see and write down your observations.
Interview tourists. If you feel comfortable, approach people who appear to be tourists and ask if they would be willing to answer some questions about tourism. Ask them what tourist destinations they have visited or plan to visit in New York City. Ask them various questions about what made them choose those specific destinations and New York City in particular.
Meet with local experts on the tourism industry. People who work at souvenir shops in heavily trafficked areas or museums may be tourism experts in their own right as they have contact with tourists on a daily basis. Ask for their perspectives on the tourist industry.
