Thanks to new attractions, better economic conditions and the growth of the Chinese market, the tourism industry of New York grew significantly last year. Various new job opportunities have been created as a result of the success.
New York visited 48.7 million tourists last year, which is 6.8% up on 2009. The increase made a great contribution to the final revenue of $31 billion including $285.4 million in hotel taxes. The increasing number of incoming tourists means a need for more hotel rooms ultimately resulting in creating new job opportunities. It has been estimated that the Big Apple had 6,600 more positions last year in comparison with the year before.
The main reason for the increase is the emergence of one of the world’s sleeping tourism giants - China. Traveling to the USA has become much easier for Chinese citizens and the results can be seen in the figures above. The British, Germans and Canadians continued to come in their usual numbers, yet there was a massive jump of 30% in visitors from China and Hong Kong. The number of incoming tourists from other countries saw slight increases, yet nowhere near the rise from the Chinese. This was a major factor in New York hotel occupancy being around the 85%, 25% higher than the rest of American cities on an average scale.
New York’s tourism sector also puts the increase in incoming tourism down to a number of new attractions in one of America’s most famous urban jungles. For example, the Brooklyn Botanic garden is said to attract an extra 10,000 tourists in 2010. It may not seem a huge amount but pennies do make pounds in the long run.