NEW YORK _ Lady Liberty stands ready to welcome those yearning to be free _ but the huddled masses of tourists aren't clamoring for a hug.
Workers for businesses that accommodate visitors to the iconic Statue of Liberty told The New York Daily News on Saturday the usual flood of tourists has slowed to a trickle _ even though the famous statue is one of the few city must-see sites that remains open.
"The lines here usually stretch sometimes to the Staten Island Ferry, but it's not happening right now," said a statue cruise worker who would not give his name. "Especially on a weekend where normally it would be busy by now. So it's definitely much slower paced then it normally would be."
"Definitely just the corona(virus) scare," he added. "If nobody is leaving their house, nobody is going to go to tourist spots."
But tourists Ellie McKay and Sean Lynch, who arrived from England on Thursday, embraced the opportunity.
"It was a bit scary at first with everything being shutdown and everything shut up, but we're kind of taking advantage of it because it's a bit quieter," McKay said.
Lynch said the couple had not initially planned to take the ride to visit the Statue of Liberty.
"We're just doing it because they closed everything down," he said, adding: "We were supposed to go up to the World Trade Center this morning, but they shut that down. We basically said 'why not do (the Statue of Liberty) because it's open.'"
A worker for the Gray Line New York Tours who sells tickets to tourists in Battery Park and Bowling Green said business has been slumping for a week.
"They come here to New York City so they want to go to the sites," the 27-year-old ticket seller said. But now, he added, "It's not too busy. Very slow."
Adam Cunningham, 30, an accountant who was jogging in Battery Park noticed the difference in the tourist crowd as well.
"There's fewer people here than usual," he told the Daily News.
"It's nice that people are taking it seriously, trying to be careful," Cunningham said. "I've just been avoiding subways if I can, stay out of crowded places and keeping good hygiene."
A tour guide who didn't want to be identified called the crowd loss "very very big."
"It's going to have an effect on everything that makes the country run, particularly New York City," he said. "This city runs on tourism. If people are not coming in, it's a very big issue."
