China is the fastest growing long-haul visitor source market for the USA, contributing 2.188 million of the total 75 million overseas visitor arrivals to the US in 2014, or 21% more than the year before, according to the US Department of Commerce Travel and Tourism data.

New York City has become the top US travel destination for Chinese travelers – four out of every 10 Chinese visitors to the USA visited New York City in 2014, 20.9% more than the previous year, and they contributed US$2.3 billion in tourism revenue to the city.

Of the 809,000 Chinese visitors who visited New York last year, 58% were leisure travelers, and they stayed 12.7 nights and spent US$3,591 per person on average. A majority of the visitors were in the 18-34 age range. Some 86% of the Chinese visitors also went shopping in New York City and 51% visited museums and art galleries, NYC & Company’s president and CEO Fred Dixon told reporters at the ‘New’ New York City promotion in Shanghai.

NYC & Company’s Fred Dixon and Christopher Heywood in Shanghai

Mr. Dixon pointed out that a majority of the Chinese visitors visiting New York City traveled with tour groups or families while the number of independent travelers was also growing rapidly as the US government is offering 10-year multiple-entry visas for Chinese nationals. China has always been an important long-haul overseas visitor source market for New York City, ranked fourth after the UK, Canada and Brazil.

NYC & Company is positive of the growth prospective for this year and expects the double-digit growth in Chinese visitor arrivals to continue, with arrivals from China to New York topping 932,000 this year.()