“Trump slump” couldn’t slow down travel to New York City in 2017, even more visitors flocked to the Big Apple than usual.
According to NYC & Company, the city’s official tourism-marketing organization, the total number of visitors jumped to 62.8 million, an increase of 2.3 million since 2016. NYC & Company officials said it was the eighth consecutive year the city set a tourism record.
Of all those visitors, 49.7 million were traveling from within the United States and 13.1 million visited New York City from other countries.
“We’re keeping our door to the world open,” said Mayor de Blasio. “Even with all the headwinds from the White House, we attracted a record number of visitors to our city. That’s a testament to the strength of our tourism sector and the values of our city.”
“Despite geopolitical challenges and a travel ban that made our task of promoting tourism more challenging than ever, we are pleased to see that we overcame these hurdles to realize a consecutive eighth year of tourism growth in New York City, welcoming an all-time high of 62.8 million visitors last year. The strength from our Asia and South American markets helped offset drops in our traditional European core markets. At the same time, the City continued its constant trend of reinvention, always offering countess reasons to visit and discover all that our five boroughs only can offer, both iconic and new. And campaigns to counter the negative rhetoric such as New York City – Welcoming the World, reaffirmed our commitment to being an open and welcoming global capital,” said NYC & Company President and CEO Fred Dixon.
