New York lures record 48.7 m visitors in 2010

Monday, 10 January 2011 00:01 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Targets 50 m visitors in 2012

New York city drew a record-breaking 48.7 million visitors in 2010. The higher-than-projected 6.8% increase over 2009 keeps the city on pace to meet its goal of attracting 50 million annual visitors by 2012 – a goal set by the Bloomberg Administration in 2007.

The hospitality industry added 6,600 jobs over the past year, employing more New Yorkers in 2010 than ever before. In 2010, the city also set a record for hotel rooms added and hotel rooms sold, while attendance at cultural institutions rose.

“This past year was New York city’s most successful year for tourism ever, and we’re well on our way to achieving our goal of attracting 50 million visitors a year,” said Mayor Bloomberg.

“The strength of our tourism industry is one of the reasons New York city was less impacted by the national recession than other cities, and it continues to be one of the reasons we’re growing faster than other cities today. The industry employed more New Yorkers in 2010 than ever before, and the $31 billion visitors spent this year supported our restaurants, shops, hotels and cultural institutions. We’re constantly looking for ways to strengthen and diversify our economy, and growing our tourism industry is an important part of that work.”

Even as local economies across the country remained sluggish following the recession, 2010 was a banner year for New York city’s hospitality industry and cultural community. In 2010:

48.7 million people visited New York city, up 6.8% from 2009 and surpassing early projections of 47.5 million;
39 million of the visitors were from the U.S. and 9.7 million from abroad – both records;
The hospitality industry added 6,600 jobs over the past year across all industry sub-sectors; the industry employs the most people in summer, and July 2010 set a all-time record for total jobs with 323,200; the annualized average jobs for 2010 through November was 315,000, an all-time high, and all of 2010 is expected to set the new record when December job data is released later this month;
25.7 million room nights were sold, a new record, exceeding the previous high by 2 million room nights;

• A net total of nearly 7,000 new hotel rooms were added to the city’s inventory, a seven% increase over 2009;

Average daily room rates rose to $330 in December 2010, an 8.9% increase over 2009;
New York city’s 1,200 nonprofit cultural organizations, which generate an estimated $18 billion in economic activity due to tourism, reported an average attendance increase of 5%;

“Many people do not realize how important tourism is to New York city,” said NYC & Company CEO, George Fertitta. “Every visitor to our city helps support our hotels, restaurants, stores and attractions and, most importantly, they help stabilize and grow our workforce. NYC & Company is very proud of our contributions to the tourism effort of the past year and we are dedicated to maintaining this momentum and reach our 2012 goal.”