The Bahamas welcomed its 5 millionth arrival for 2010, the second time in the country’s history it has achieved the record total, according to the Ministry of Tourism. The destination recorded 4,645,115 vacationer arrivals in 2009.

In 2010, Portugal surpassed their best year for American travel, which was 2008. According to the Portuguese National Tourist Office, U.S. hotel guests (Portugal’s eighth-largest market) were up 12.6 percent over 2009 and American overnights (the country’s ninth-largest market) were up 9.4 percent.

A blizzard in late December did little damage to New York City tourism, which reported record-breaking numbers for 2010. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Robert Steel and NYC & Company CEO George Fertitta said New York City drew 48.7 million visitors in 2010. The higher-than-projected 6.8 percent increase over 2009 keeps New York on pace to meet its goal of attracting 50 million annual visitors by 2012, a goal set by the Bloomberg Administration in 2007, prior to the national recession.

The Hon. Joseph Parry, the Premier of Nevis, said the island’s main industry of Tourism has positive projections for the New Year. Nisbett Plantation, which is recognized internationally as a major Caribbean hotel, has experienced a 9 percent jump in occupancy for December 2010 over the same period in 2009. The trend is projected to continue into the first quarter of 2011.

Tourism stakeholders in Tobago are set to demand more investment from Central Government to launch a sustained destination marketing and branding campaign for Tobago. With the island grappling with low tourist arrivals and low hotel occupancy, Minister of Tourism Rupert Griffith called the stakeholders to a meeting held last week at the Ministry of Tourism headquarters on Duke Street, Port of Spain.

The U.S. Department of Commerce announced that international visitors spent an estimated $11.9 billion on travel to, and tourism-related activities within, the United States during the month of October -- nearly $1.8 billion more (18 percent) than was spent in October 2009, marking the 10th straight month of growth in U.S. travel and tourism exports.