2010: A Good Year for New York City

Recession or no recession, tourists came to the Big Apple in droves last year.

A record 48.7 million visitors visited New York City in 2010, up 6.8% from 2009, the city's tourism office said today in a statement. A record 9.7 million of those visitors were from outside of the United States, and the 39 million who came from within the country was also a record. Together, they spent $31 billion in the city in 2010.

“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," Mayor Bloomberg said at a news conference at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

"We’re constantly looking for ways to strengthen and diversify our economy, and growing our tourism industry is an important part of that work," Bloomberg said.

Attendance at New York City’s 1,200 nonprofit cultural organizations rose 5% last year, and Broadway attendance this season was up 3.8% from last year, topping 7.55 million.

The jump in tourism is helping New York City stay on pace to meet its goal of attracting 50 million annual visitors by 2012, a goal the Bloomberg Administration set in 2007, before the recession.