It is not the first tourist-centric business to be hit by internecine violence. The Chinatown bus wars, more than a decade ago, were far deadlier. The competition to rent bicycles in Central Park became so tense that street fights broke out. There were so many troubling incidents involving costumed characters in Times Square and elsewhere — Spider-Man slugging a cop, Elmo launching into an obscenity-laced rant — that the city created zones in which characters must remain while soliciting tips.

The violence near Battery Park goes back about two years, and has occurred despite efforts by the authorities to clamp down. During some months, the police have made more than 20 arrests.

But tourists and passers-by still bristle at what they describe as aggressive and sometimes shady sales practices. Tourists are often sold tickets for boats that they believe are nearby, but that actually require a lengthy wait to ride a bus or van to another pier. Other tourists believe they will be able to get off at Liberty Island, only to learn later that the boat only loops around the island.

As Marc Dumay waited to board a boat on Saturday, he began to wonder if he had been scammed. Visiting from Boston, he had taken an Uber car to Lower Manhattan hoping to find a boat to take him close to the Statue of Liberty. Before he had a chance to step out of the car, he was surrounded by ticket sellers asking him, over and over, “You going to Liberty?”

“It was high pressure for me,” said Mr. Dumay, 44, who bought a boat ticket, still uncertain where the boat was headed.

“I still don’t know what we’re going to see,” he said. “He could’ve conned me.”

His cruise never approached the Statue of Liberty, instead heading north on the Hudson River to Midtown.