Record 46 Milllion Tourists Visited New York City in 2007

The upside to the weak U.S. dollar? NYC made $28 billion from tourists last year. The Mayor announced that tourism to NYC was at record highs, with 46 million people visiting the Big Apple. Of the 46 million tourists, 8.5 million were from other countries, which is another high. From Mayor Bloomberg's speech:

This incredible surge puts us well on our way to reaching our goal of drawing 50 million annual visitors by the year 2015. And it's helping to bolster our local businesses even as the economy is slowing down nationwide....The impact of those dollars reverberated in every sector of our economy: from our neighborhood shops and restaurants to our hotels - which sold a record 22.8 million rooms, to arts and cultural institutions. In fact, City-owned cultural institutions across the five boroughs saw a combined increase of 855,000 visitors since 2006.

City officials credit the city's safety, cleanliness and excitement to drawing crowds. And the city has also been working hard, what with concerted efforts to advertise all the NYC has to offer to other cities and countries.

The Mayor also acknowledged that New Yorkers should be nice to tourists, Saying the "next time you hear someone asking for Hew-ston Street, or puzzling over the fact that Manhattan Beach is actually in Brooklyn, why not point them in the right direction? You'll be doing a service to our visitors, and also to the hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers whose jobs depend on those visitors." Hey, Mr. Mayor - we love giving directions so much, we interrupt people if we think their directions are bad!

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By Jen Chung in News on January 14, 2008 8:53 PM

Comments [rss]

Bizzle

I know I should be nice to tourists. But it is irritating as hell. I am on my lunch break and trying to get back to the office. I don't have time to explain to someone in a car why they cannot drive to the Statue of Liberty.

Yes....I said drive to the Statue of Liberty.

EastRiver

Tourists aren't nearly as annoying as the locals. A tourist standing on the street corner staring at a map can be avoided. A jerk in a suit weaving down the sidewalk staring into his Blackberry causes far more congestion problems.

osmium

that big dude in the photo is awesome.

emilydickinson

I take it as a point of pride to go out of my way to be helpful to tourists. Outside of the US, NYC actually has a reputation for being an extremely friendly city, which is well deserved. Sure, tourists can be a little annoying, but outside of Midtown and SoHo, they don't intersect with the life of the average New Yorker all that much.

JenChungsBaby

Oy, 46 million tourists? It's enough to give me tourist tsuris.

I'm always nice to tourists. When they're standing on the corner waiting for the light to change I exhort them to cross the damned street already. That way they don't waste all their time in NYC standing around at empty intersections.

Tgirl

all these tourists on their little shopping furloghs milling about in a retail coma while we have to dodge and dart our way around them so that we can get to our jobs and homes. Annoying.

I just wish the mayor was as hell-bent on "being nice" to the residents of this city as he is to the temporary guest. For those of us who aren't earning piles of money, this city is getting ever-more expensive to survive in.

zonny b

New tourist guide for NYC: "WELCOME TO MANHATTAN, CITY OF BANKS!"

amauri

"City officials credit the city's safety, cleanliness".

Wait... did they say cleanliness? Oh yeah. NYC is über clean. East Village, LES, Chinatown? Pristine!

alexand

you put three L's in "Million" dude

antonius

I like them, but they should tip more.

tnturner

..be nice to tourists, Saying the "next time you hear someone asking for Hew-ston Street, or puzzling over the fact that Manhattan Beach is actually in Brooklyn, why not point them in the right direction? You'll be doing a service to our visitors, and also to the hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers whose jobs depend on those visitors." Hey, Mr. Mayor - we love giving directions so much, we interrupt people if we think their directions are bad!...

Exactly! Still out of touch with the actualities of daily life by common people in NYC. Why does anybody want this douche to be Prez?

He's a fucking asshole hell bent on polls and numbers.

ed_Extinct

her streets, bridges, sewers, water pipes, parks, people, employees, homeless, airports, security, pretty much anything the city does that money will go towards, it will also be saved and invested.