Surrender to New York's International Allure

More than 8 million foreign travelers visit New York each year. The city also was the first American experience for millions of European immigrants in the 19th and 20th centuries.

New York attracts more than 8 million foreign travelers a year, which makes it the Number 1 tourist destination in the United States. For more than 200 years, it also marked landfall for millions of immigrants sailing to new lives in a new world, answering the Statue of Liberty's call to "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free ...."

The city is known as a shopper’s paradise, giving rise to the famous saying: “If you can’t find it in New York, chances are it doesn’t exist.” It also is home to the nation's most vibrant professional theater community, where the term "On Broadway" synonymous with the dramatic excellence.

Although Manhattan (seen here) is the most celebrated part of New York, each of the city’s five boroughs is distinctive. Writer Pete Hamill describes his native Brooklyn as “filled with … a Vermeer light” that evokes the sun-streaked interiors of a 17th-century Dutch painting.

For more information about American travel destinations, visit Welcome to the USA.