Offbeat NYC graffiti tour survives despite predicted drop in foreign tourism thanks to visitors from this country: ‘They're obsessed with street art'

New York Post

a day ago

These tourists see the writing on the wall.
French art lovers are flocking to industrial Brooklyn in droves for quirky walking tours of warehouses sprayed with graffiti and street art.
Advertisement
The niche fascination is still going strong despite a major industry group projecting a nearly 20% drop in overall foreign tourism to the Big Apple this year.
5 Audrey Connolly of Graff Tours leads a tour of street art and graffiti in Bushwick, Brooklyn.
Stephen Yang
'There are so many people in France that are obsessed with graffiti and street art: It's been a huge part of our business for years,' Bushwick-based Graff Tours tour guide Audrey 'Byte' Connolly told The Post.
Advertisement
Connolly, who has led walking tours of the hipster neighborhood's urban art for nearly a decade, attributing trailblazing cultural similarities in New York and Paris for the grand amour.
As tour guides across the city report an absence of usual visitors from Canada, Australia, Germany and other nations — possibly over political boycotts and tariff-related economic fears — French tourists are largely unbothered, Connolly said.
'They're obsessed with street art — hopefully, they keep coming.'
5 Connolly leads a group of tourists — two French families and one group from Kansas City, Missouri — on a tour through industrial Bushwick.
Stephen Yang
Advertisement
Germans and Israelis — who also represent large swaths of Graff Tour patrons — have not booked nearly as much this year, and school groups from Canada and China have also dwindled, Connolly said.
Antoine Jacquet, a 23-year-old Graff Tours customer from Dijon, France, said its been more difficult to clear immigration hurdles under the Trump administration.
But he was able to make the overseas trip himself, and even predicted foreign tourism will 'probably pick up with the new mayor Zohran [Mamdani],' referring to the Democratic mayoral nominee, a socialist, because 'his policies are more based out of Europe than to America.'
New York City Tourism + Conventions, the city's tourism authority, recently said that some 2 million fewer visitors from other countries are expected to make the trip to the Big Apple in 2025, a loss of roughly $4 billion in foreign tourism dollars.
Advertisement
August is typically one of the busiest months for tours, Connolly said, but during weeks this year when she would've typically been working for seven days straight, she's spent entire days off without a booking.
'Tourism has big-down market effects: it affects hotels, it affects small businesses, it affects [the] local economy,' said Graff Tours president Gabe Schoenberg.
The impact has been felt in trendy Bushwick, from thrift shops to restaurants that cater to Euro families in the hipster shopping district, added Schoenberg.
5 Antoine Jacquet, 23, of Dijon, France, expects that tourism to the US will tourism will 'probably pick up with the new mayor Zohran [Mamdani].'
Stephen Yang
As French tourism to the biz remains strong, Schoenberg still reports a roughly 10% drop in overall foreign visitors since last year — and is now trying too woo domestic tourists and locals with targeted social media ads.
'We did better this year with domestic tourism than years past,' he said.
But 'a lot of domestic tourists don't see [graffiti] as art,' Connolly said. 'They're being told to fear New York and everything about it.'
Schoenberg also attributed the reluctance of foreign tourists to visit New York City to 'backlash' over President Trump and his policies, as well rising transportation and food costs and fears over tariff-related price increases.
Advertisement
'Even for a New Yorker, prices are going up and prices are going up exponentially,' he said.
'But locally, either exemptions for tourism or some type of incentive for tourism could also help.'
5 While French tourism remains steady, Graff Tours has still seen a roughly 10% drop in overall foreign visitors since last year — and is now trying too woo domestic tourists and locals.
Stephen Yang
5 Graffiti writer The Ghostface Mims teaches a workshop at Graff Tours.
Stephen Yang
Advertisement
The president of the tour company — which has a Los Angeles outpost as well — attributed diversity in its offerings as its key to staying afloat in uncertain times.
Aside from industrial walking tours, Graff Tours' Bushwick site also offers spray painting classes and has hosted corporate events for the likes of Meta, L'Oréal and even hosted an influencer-filled launch party for Samsung this summer.
'The class revenue is significant compared to the tour revenue,' Schoenberg said. 'If I was relying on tours in general, I don't think I would still be in business.'