Tourists are coming back to the city. According to NYC & Company, the city’s official tourism organization, more than 56 million people are expected to visit the city this year. That’s more than double the 22 million people who visited in 2020 — and it's welcome news for some in Long Island City.

Allan Johnston, the area general manager for Sonder — which specializes in apartment-style hotel rooms — says since the company opened its first Long Island City location in Court Square earlier this year, it's been about 80% occupied.

“We're relatively new to the market, but we've been really excited with the performance so far,” Johnston said.

"It's just such a vibrant area. It fits our demographics so well. We felt very good about it," Johnston added. "We did sign the deal pre-pandemic, so it didn't matter whether it was a risk or not. We're going to do it anyway, but we weren't worried about it."

In fact, business has been so good, Sonder is opening a second location in the neighborhood in a few months. While opening a hotel during the uncertainty of the pandemic sounds risky, Sonder is not alone.

According to the Long Island City Partnership, there are 39 hotels in the planning or construction stages currently. That means an additional 5,700 hotel rooms could open in the neighborhood in the coming years. Currently, there are 42 hotels open, with about 4,300 hotel rooms.

“It's not just a value proposition in the sense of good price. It's a value proposition in terms of what you get by being here," said Elizabeth Lusskin, the president of the Long Island City Partnership. "It's just such a great neighborhood, and it only keeps getting better."

According to STR, a global hospitality data and analytics company, hotels in Long Island City averaged a 73.5% occupancy rate in March 2022. That’s way up from the 41.2% occupancy rate hotels in the area averaged at the beginning of the pandemic, in March 2020, but down from pre-pandemic March 2019, when the area's hotels had an 83.7% occupancy rate. 

At the Courtyard by Marriot in Long Island City, business travel is picking up again. General manager Abner Withers says the conference rooms have been booked steadily, and overall hotel occupancy this year is back to pre-pandemic levels.

“Now we're starting to see the transient tourism come back from all over the world, which is nice to see,” Withers said.

But not everyone is celebrating the fact that the hotel market is set to virtually double in size in the coming years.

"I just found it was overwhelming that we got so many hotels and not enough low income housing for the people that live here," said Sylvia White, who lives in the Astoria Houses.

White is a member of the Justice For All Coalition, a group fighting overdevelopment in Western Queens. She says the community needs more affordable housing — not hotel rooms.

"I'm just astounded that they would think at that level. We need a break," White said. 

But those who work in hospitality are optimistic that the area’s tourism will help create jobs — and keep hotels full.