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FORGET
the Empire State Building. Some New York tourists are
eager to see the city’s other landmarks: Carrie’s stoop,
Charlotte’s gallery and that restaurant where Samantha
threw a martini in a boyfriend’s face. Fans of Sex
and the City have long arrived here eager to see the
$500 shoes, the Cosmopolitan-drinking fashionistas and
the glamorous serial daters for themselves. Now, with
the movie follow-up to the show set to premiere later
this month, a number of them are planning trips so that
they can see Sex and the City...in the city.
“Once we
found out there was going to be a movie, we thought what
a great weekend to do a girls’ trip to New York City,
the weekend of the premiere,” said Amy Walker, a
31-year-old accountant from Minneapolis who says she has
watched the entire series twice on DVD.
Along
with three female friends, she’s planning to relax at a
spa mentioned on the show, take a “Sex and the City”
Hotspots tour and see the movie on its opening weekend.
“The
producers have said that
New York City
is the fifth lady of the show,” says Lisa Blythe Perlman,
a guide for the hot-spots tour. “Eighty percent of the
show was filmed on location.”
Perlman
and her colleagues bus about 1,000 tourists a week to
see Carrie’s stoop, check out her favorite sex-toy shop,
sample her signature cocktail and eat the same cupcakes
that they first spotted on the show. The tour company
says it has already seen advance purchases more than
double for the May 30 opening weekend.
“Sex and
the City has been one of the all-time great commercials
for the city of New York,” says George Fertitta, who
heads NYC & Company, the city’s tourism office. “There’s
all of the fabric and the texture and the vibrancy of
New York....It shows everything: from a great shopping
component to a nightlife component, to a restaurant
component.”
Fertitta,
who peppers his conversations with journalists with
mentions of the show, said he was surprised on a recent
visit to China when he found himself flooded by
questions from local female reporters about the series.
“They
look at this as a window into
New York City,”
he said.
With its
glossy shoots at parks, restaurants, nightclubs and
shops around the city, the series has been something of
an international ambassador for New York, showing in
more than 200 countries around the world, according to
HBO. About one-third of “Sex and the City Hotspots”
tourgoers are from outside the United States, says On
Location Tours spokesman Cathy Epstein.
The city
is looking to capitalize on that interest. NYC & Company
is launching a web site to help visitors plan a Sex and
the City-themed visit, and is organizing sweepstakes for
such trips in Australia, Canada, France, Germany,
Britain and around the US. On Location Tours is offering
an opening-night package that includes its hot-spots
tour, the movie and a cocktail party.
One
company is charging visitors $15,000 and up for a
luxurious four-day trip based on the show. Participants
in the “Destination on Location” tour, launching the
weekend the movie opens, will dine at restaurants
frequented by Carrie and her friends, visit their
favorite boutiques with personal stylists and even have
the option to stop for some Botox injections.
Although
their visit will be less extravagant, Walker and her
three friends are also planning to walk in the footsteps
of Carrie, Miranda, Samantha and Charlotte.
“There
definitely will be some shoe shopping,” she said of
their upcoming getaway. “Minneapolis has the Mall of
America, but it’s nothing like SoHo.”
--AP |
