New York set records for hotel rooms added (7,000) and room nights sold (25.7 million), even as room rates increased overall, Bloomberg said. Attendance at nonprofit cultural institutions and Broadway shows also increased.
"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," Bloomberg said at a press conference.
"The industry employed more New Yorkers in 2010 than ever before, and the $31 billion visitors spent this year supported our restaurants, shops, hotels and cultural institutions. We're constantly looking for ways to strengthen and diversify our economy, and growing our tourism industry is an important part of that work."
Other highlights from the press conference included:
-- 39 million visitors were from the United States and 9.7 million were from abroad.
-- Average daily room rates rose to $330 in December 2010, an 8.9 percent increase over 2009.
-- July 2010 set a record for total jobs in the hospitality industry with 323,200, and all of 2010 is expected to set a record when December job data is released later this month.
-- Broadway attendance so far this season is above 7.55 million, up 3.8 percent from this point last season.
