Arrivals to Berlin and New York jump

For all the talk of 2010 being the year of staycations, travelers are heading to some destinations in droves, statistics have shown this week.

According to the latest figures from authorities in Berlin, numbers were up by 11.7 percent for the first half of 2010, driven in part by a massive growth in arrivals from developing countries such as Brazil (59.3 percent up), India (33 percent up) and China (30 percent up).

Internal visits jumped 10.3 percent, said the Berlin Tourism board, but the 14.5 percent growth in international visitors far eclipsed this.

New York also posted a first half jump in arrivals of 8.75 percent over the same period in 2009.

City officials believe that America's number one destination will host approximately 47.5 million visitors in 2010, a 4.2 percent increase over 2009 and a key stepping stone to their goal of 50 million visitors by 2012.

NYC & Company CEO George Fertitta attributed the growth to the new global marketing campaign and strategic public-private partnerships such as that with American Airlines, which tried to attract people to the city with flight promotions.

On August 11, hotel analyst STR Global said that it was optimistic about the rest of 2010.

It predicts that by the end of the year, hotel occupancy will increase by 4.4 percent to 57.1 percent, and the average daily rate in US hotels will be $97.74 (€76.28).

By 2011, STR said that occupancy should be running at 57.9 percent and the average daily rate would be 3.9 percent higher at $101.55 (€79.25).

http://www.visitberlin.de

http://www.nycgo.com/

http://www.strglobal.com