Bloomberg: City Could See 50M Tourists in 2012

The city may attract 50 million tourists a year by 2012, Mayor Bloomberg is saying, three years ahead of his original goal of 2015.

A record 46 million people visited New York City in 2007, Mr. Bloomberg announced yesterday in a prerecorded message shown at an event hosted by NYC & Company's chief executive officer, George Fertitta, in Las Vegas. Last year's record-setting amount of visitors brought in an estimated $28 billion in revenue.

The increase in visitors is due in large part to a booming tourism industry and a weak dollar that is attracting millions of foreign visitors. New York continues to outpace the rest of the nation, and since 2000 the city has seen a 34% increase in overseas arrivals compared to an 8% decline in America as a whole.

Mr. Bloomberg originally set the goal of 50 million visitors a year by 2015 in 2006.