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The city of New York welcomed a record 46m visitors last year, according to the latest estimates.

Some 8.5m foreign tourists visited the city in 2007, while the majority of the market was made up by people from the US.

Britain accounted for the largest portion of the foreign market, with 1.4m arrivals last year, while 880,000 people came from Canada and just over 500,000 visited from Germany, the New York tourism office said.

The strength of the euro and the British pound against the US dollar was thought to be one of the major factors in the popularity of New York as a tourist destination last year.

City mayor Michael Bloomberg said: 'This incredible surge puts us well on our way to reaching our goal of drawing 50m annual visitors by the year 2015.'

He added: 'It's helping to bolster our local businesses even as the economy is slowing down nationwide.'

Last year's figures represent the continuation of a trend of growth that saw New York visitor numbers rise from 35.3m in 2002 to 43.8m in 2006.

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