GOVERNMENT & ECONOMY

Hotel rooms are cheaper and travel is up, but the number of U.S. tourists to New York is declining, hampering tourism’s ability to boost the Big Apple’s economy. Manhattan hotels say bookings have picked up since the end of the Persian Gulf War but are still 5% to 10% below last summer, which in turn, were down from the previous year, the New York Times reported. There has been a 7% decline in domestic airport arrivals and a 5% drop in Amtrak arrivals from 1988 to ’90. The average price of a hotel room has dipped slightly to $134 a day but remains too costly for many Americans.