NYC tourism to hit record numbers in 2017

New York’s hot streak for tourism stayed on pace in 2017: According to the New York Times, the city is expected to welcome a staggering 61.8 million visitors this year. That’s an increase of just over two percent from 2016’s 60.5 million tourists, which was yet another record; in fact, NYC & Company told the Times that the city has broken its own records for the past eight years. Last year was the first time that more than 60 million tourists came to NYC.

The company does, however, expect a dip in the number of international visitors, though one that’s not as pronounced as tourism officials had initially feared in the wake of President Donald Trump’s travel ban (which, according to Vox, will go into effect soon and restrict travel to and from six Muslim-majority countries). Per NYC & Company, the city will see just 100,000 fewer foreign visitors this year, which is less than the 300,000 it had anticipated earlier this year.

And while the “strength of the American dollar” was likely a large factor in that dip, Fred Dixon, the head of NYC & Company, noted that “this isolationism, this ‘America first’ rhetoric” could also be a factor through the end of the year and beyond.

For as much as New Yorkers love to complain about street-clogging, selfie-snapping tourists in their midst, they’re a boon for the city’s economy: NYC & Company estimates that they brought in about $4.2 billion in 2016, with international tourists spending an average $2,000 each during their stays. (Per the Times, that’s about four times as much as domestic tourists.)

• New York City Expects More Tourists, but Fewer International Visitors [NYT]
• More tourists visited NYC in 2016 than ever before [Curbed]