Driving the 'rat tour' trend are influencers on social media.
New York is one of the popular tourist destinations in the world. Tens of thousands of tourists visit the Big Apple to see Statue of Liberty, Central Park, Times Square and other majestic places. But now, a new - and unexpected - attraction has opened for tourists visiting New York - its exploding rat population. According to a report in The Guardian, tour guides are tailoring excursions to introduce them to the city's most beady-eyed natives. Touted as the "must-experience trend", the tour involves spotting squeaking and squealing rodents.
Driving the trend are influencers on social media, like Kenny Bollwerk, who has built a TikTok following by posting videos from around New York as a rodent guide.
He spends "an hour or two" live-streaming rats running around outside a building, The Guardian report said.
"I was like: 'Damn, this is bad'. People are walking by, there's rats running across people's feet, there's piles of trash on the sidewalk," he told the outlet.
The 36-year-old said thousands of his followers tune in live to watch the rats.
Mr Bollwerk is not the only one. Luke Miller, owner of Real New York Tours, added a stop to his tours in Columbus Park years ago for tourists who are curious about the resident rodents.
"There seems to be a strange fascination with rats these days. On my tours over the years, people have always been intrigued and asked questions about the rats in NYC, but it was after a video of a rat dragging a slice of pizza down the subway stairs that went viral that I began getting more questions about where to see rats," Mr Miller told CBC.
Rat population grew exponentially in New York during the pandemic due to ample shelter and food from dining sheds.
There were over 60,000 reports of rat activity citywide in 2022 - a shocking 102 per cent increase from 2021, New York Post said citing Health Department data.
So far this year, there have been more than 39,000 reports of rat activity, the outlet further said.