Interestingly it seems its not the length of the Parade that matters most to people. The Macy’s Day Parade on Thanksgiving is actually just about 2 hours, making it a small hog of police resources, even though it is arguably the biggest parade event associated with New York.

So sometimes less is more!

Mayor Bloomberg lent his enthusiasm at a press conference at the Greenhouse Café in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, when he said, “I think these numbers are just as good a reading as you could possibly hope for, given you have a national recession.”

New York City saw 45.25 million visitors last year, while Orlando had 44 million and Vegas had 35.3 million.  Even more amazingly, employment in the tourism industry actually increased by 1.4% in New York, while it fell by a ghastly 10% in Vegas.

Setting our sights on 2010, New York City is hoping for 46.7 million visitors and is hoping for 50 million tourists by 2012, according to the mayor.