Mayor Bloomberg announced this year's Paint the Town promotion yesterday, amid good (for the NYC economy) news about tourism in 2005. About 41 million people visited our fair city - and here are some more interesting stats:
- 8.25 million visited in November and December
- Foreign visitors are responsible for 45% of city business revenue (thank you, crappy exchange rate)
- Last week was Broadway's biggest week ever (some might call it "best week ever")
- Hotel occumpancy was up from last year
- The transit strike was a "speed bump" but not a roadblock - or something like that
But the best thing about the press conference was when an astrologer told the Mayor that he might be a latent painter. Either that or this photo op of the Mayor looking slightly befuddled next to a Chinese lion head.
