New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on February 2 2015 that a record 56.4 million visitors came to New York in 2014. 12.2 million of them were overseas visitors. This growth in tourism numbers has helped boost the local economy and added to both employment and tax revenue.
New York City is the number one big city destination in the United States. It is the number one port-of-entry for foreign visitors, the number one city for tourism spending, and has the highest share of overseas visitors to the U.S.
New York City also has the fastest growing hotel rooms in the country. As demand is very high, occupancy rates were 89% in the 102,000 hotel rooms located in the city. The average daily hotel room rates in 2014 also went up slightly to reach $295 per night.
With a US Customs and Border Protection pre-clearance facility in Abu Dhabi, all Etihad flights to the US now pre-check their passengers in Abu Dhabi. Passengers do not have to go through strict immigration and security controls after they land, making it all the more attractive to travel to the United States.
Emirates has two daily Airbus A380 direct flights to JFK airport in New York and another Boeing 777 flight via Milan Malpensa airport. Qatar Airways, Saudi Airlines and Turkish Airlines also bring in tourists from the Middle East to New York. Several European carriers such as British Airways, Lufthansa, KLM and Air France also fly in passengers from the Middle East to New York.
While in New York, be sure to check out the Museum of Modern Art and the nearby foodtruck – Halal Guys. They serve spicy halal food from a truck at the corner of W 53rd St and 6th Ave.
