Travel and Tourism
Tourists flocked to major cities in the United States in 2016, setting many new records. Growth in the number of inbound travelers was especially strong from China.
Orlando, Florida, home of Disney World and Epcot Center, surpassed New York City as the most visited US city in 2013, with 59 million visitors, an all-time record.
That figure grew to 66 million tourists in 2015.
New York, meanwhile, welcomed an estimated 59.7 visitors in 2015.
The third most visited city in the United States, Chicago, Illinois, played host to a record 52 million visitors in 2015.
Los Angeles, California, welcomed a record 45.5 million visitors in 2015, an increase of 2.8% over 2014 levels, breaking visitation records for the fifth consecutive year.
Las Vegas, Nevada, came in fourth place with an estimated 42 million visitors.
Some of the other most popular travel destinations in the United States include San Francisco, California; Miami, Florida; Honolulu, Hawaii; Washington, DC; and Boston, Massachusetts.
China Rising
Strong growth in the number of tourists from China is fueling much of the growth.
According to NYC and Company, 850,000 people from China visited New York City in 2015. That figure is expected to grow by 8.2% in 2016.
China is the fourth-largest source of foreign visitors to New York after England, Canada, and Brazil.
“We’ve already said we’re expecting Chinese visitors to reach one million by 2018, and this could help us achieve it even sooner,” a spokesman for NYC and Co. says.
The number of Chinese people visiting Los Angeles grew by 13.6% to 779,000 in 2015. China is now the city’s second largest source of foreign tourists after Mexico.