Travelsmart
New York City mayor Bill de Blasio has announced that 2017 was the eighth consecutive year for record-breaking tourism, with the city welcoming an estimated 62.8 million visitors last year.
The figure represents an increase of 2.3 million visitors over 2016.
Visitation for 2017 was comprised of 49.7 million domestic and 13.1 million international visitors, both all-time highs.
“We’re keeping our door to the world open,” said de Blasio.
“Even with all the headwinds from the White House, we attracted a record number of visitors to our City.
“That’s a testament to the strength of our tourism sector and the values of our city.”
In 2017, NYC & Company – the official destination marketing organisation for the city – launched two campaigns, “New York City – Welcoming the World” and “True York City”, which helped position NYC as a must-visit destination despite challenges in the geopolitical climate and changes in travel policies.
Overall, tourism last year grew 3.8 per cent compared to 2016, when NYC welcomed 60.5 million visitors.
Domestic visitation grew 3.9 per cent, from 47.8 million visitors in 2016 to 49.7 million in 2017.
International travel increased by 3.4 per cent, from 12.7 million visitors in 2016 to 13.1 million in 2017.
“Despite geopolitical challenges and a travel ban that made our task of promoting tourism more challenging than ever, we are pleased to see that we overcame these hurdles to realise a consecutive eighth year of tourism growth in New York City, welcoming an all-time high of 62.8 million visitors last year.
“The strength from our Asia and South American markets helped offset drops in our traditional European core markets.
“At the same time, the City continued its constant trend of reinvention, always offering countless reasons to visit and discover all that our five boroughs only can offer, both iconic and new,” said NYC & Company president Fred Dixon.
NYC has the most active hotel development pipeline in the United States.
Even with the 4,000 new rooms added to the city’s hotel inventory last year – bringing the total to nearly 116,500 rooms – demand remained strong.
Last year, the City sold a record 36.4 million hotel room nights, a 4.5 per cent growth from 2016.
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