New York City – Most Popular US Travel Destination for Two Consecutive Years

Added by Elivia DeVries on January 5, 2011

City of New York has always been criticized by travelers for being very expensive and having hotels infested by bed bugs. Despite this, it has attracted a close to 50 million visitors in the last year. This made it the most popular travel destination in America for the second consecutive year.

The Mayor proudly stated that the total number of visitors rose close to 7% as compared to figures of 2009. This was the year when New York, also known as the Big Apple, was ranked as the most popular city in America for travelers. It displaced Orlando in Florida from the top spot.

NY City’s Mayor had set a goal of attracting more than fifty million visitors by 2012. With more than 48.7 million visitors in the last year, the probability of succeeding in this goal seems very high of the mayor.

In further good news, the city received the highest number of domestic as well as foreign tourists in its history. Thirty nine million tourists visited from domestic destinations while 9.7 million tourists landed from foreign countries.

Room rates rose by 8.9 per cent and this means that the larger number of tourists brought more cash to the city. In all, the city earned $31 billion from tourism and the hospitality sector.