Pesky ticket sellers pushing deceptive ferry rides around — but not to — the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island are finally getting the heave ho from Battery Park, The Post has learned.
NY Waterway, which manages Pier 36 at the south of Manhattan, warned boat operators last week that their berthing permits would be yanked starting Aug. 21 if street vendors were caught hawking their tours.
“The situation created by street sellers in Lower Manhattan has become intolerable for tourists, residents and workers alike,” Donald Liloia, a vice president of NY Waterway, wrote to a dozen ferry owners and related parties last week.
“We have decided to do our part to assist the City in eliminating the problem by no longer allowing any operation that accepts tickets sold by street vendors to access any DockNYC location,” Liloia wrote, according to a copy of the email obtained by The Post. DockNYC is the city’s vessel docking program.
Only one city contractor actually offers rides to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, and those tickets are sold from a kiosk within Battery Park. The New York City Economic Development Corporation supervises the piers.
“NYCEDC reserves the right to manage its public piers in a manner that promotes public safety and the goals of the DockNYC program,” the agency’s spokeswoman told The Post.
Ticket sellers on Sunday protested a then-potential ban on selling Statue of Liberty tickets near Staten Island Ferry terminal in Manhattan.
“NYCEDC has received repeated reports that third-party ticket sellers have engaged in practices that increase sales by aggressively or fraudulently promoting tours to the Statue of Liberty,” she said.
But ticket seller Oluwabamsie Jegede of New York Iconic Tours called the new policy “unfair.”
“We were not given a fair hearing. We just received that notice without a call or meeting,” he said, referring to Liloia’s email.
“Our ticket has a disclaimer that we do not take tourists to the Statue of Liberty or Ellis Island, that we do not disembark. What we offer is a one-hour tour around the Statue of Liberty,” he said.