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        <title><![CDATA[Big Apple’s tourism arm NYC & Company slashes staff as coronavirus toll grows]]></title>
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        <link>https://usagag.com/2020/04/29/big-apples-tourism-arm-nyc-company-slashes-staff-as-coronavirus-toll-grows/</link>
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            <media:title type="html">Big Apple’s tourism arm NYC & Company slashes staff as coronavirus toll grows</media:title>
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        <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The lights are out on Broadway — and the city&#8217;s biggest booster.</p><p>The Big Apple&#8217;s tourism arm, NYC &amp; Company, <strong>has furloughed</strong> more than half of its staff as the coronavirus shutdown slams its finances, The Post has learned.</p><p>The public-private partnership is shelving 77 of its employees — roughly 55 percent of its workforce — for three months beginning May 1, but will continue to pay for their health benefits, it said.</p><p>It receives about half of its funding from advertising, promotions and memberships paid for by private businesses — all of which have been hit hard by COVID-19.</p><p>The other half of its funding comes from City Hall, which is keeping its support for the organization flat.</p><p>“We are not immune to the effects of COVID-19 and the severe impact the crisis has had on the tourism and hospitality industry,&#8221; said spokesman Chris Heywood, in a statement. &#8220;Due to a shortfall in private advertising, promotions and membership revenue and the inability to seek federal relief funding&#8230;, difficult business decisions had to be made in order to preserve working capital for the tourism recovery efforts ahead.&#8221;</p>]]></content:encoded>
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