Tourism may be slightly down in the city, but the Big Apple is still the most popular destination in the country.
According to figures released Monday, New York City has overtaken Orlando, Florida as the most popular tourism spot in the nation.
The city also remained the most popular US destination for international visitors. A total of 8.6 million international tourists visited in 2009 — twice as many as the city’s closest competitor, Los Angeles.
It comes during a year when fewer people actually traveled to the city than in prior years. In 2007, 46 million people visited, an increase of five percent from the previous year — compared to 47 million in 2008, or an increase of 2.2 percent. This year, the number dipped to 45.2 million.
Officials say they’re nonetheless pleased, because the worldwide recession caused them to predict a 10 percent drop or more.
“This does represent a 3 point 9 percent decline compared to 2008,” said Mayor Michael Bloomberg. “We originally had projected a 10 percent drop in visitors during ’09, which means we actually received about a million and a quarter more visitors than we anticipated. So it is down a little bit, but it is down an awful lot less than what we had feared.”
Despite the decline, the hospitality sector has actually gained jobs with food service jobs growing by 1.1 percent, while hotels grew 2.6 percent.
(Source: NY1)
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3 Responses
Illegal aliens don’t count as tourists for the sake of statistics, right?
i havnt visited nyc for the last 5 years because of police persecution. its way too risky for me because the police viciously attack me for no reason repetitively as im simply walking down the street.
kluum – How do they know it’s you?