A new report from the New York state comptroller’s office released Thursday says the tourism sector in New York City is heading towards a “complete recovery” from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Despite a fewer number of tourists overall, the report indicated that visitor spending has surpassed pre-pandemic levels. According to the report, spending by visitors to New York City topped $48 billion in 2023, topping the $47.4 billion spent by visitors in 2019.

In an interview on "Inside City Hall" Thursday night, State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli said he wanted to highlight  the importance of the report is not just the jobs that are directly created in the tourism industry, but about the tax revenue the industry generates.

“This spending has translated into a projected $5 billion in tax revenue for the city's 2024 fiscal year,” DiNapoli said.

When asked about 30,000 tourism industry jobs that were cut during the pandemic and remain unfilled, DiNapoli said there was a good chance they could come back if the trend of increasing visitors continues.

A total of 62.2 million tourists visited New York City in 2023, the report indicated. That number is about 93% of the record 66.6 million tourist visits in 2019, according to the report, and also represents a 9.7% increase from 2022.

According to the report, 50.6 million of those tourists were domestic tourists, a 7% increase from 2022, though 4.7% less than 2019 levels. 11.6 million of those tourists were international tourists, according to the report, a 23.4% increase from 2022, but 14.1% below 2019 levels. 

“Tourism, as we all know, is a vital industry for New York City, and it was decimated during the height of the COVID 19 pandemic in 2020. The city saw a 66.5% drop in total visitors. Fast forward to 2023, the latest data that this report is based on, and tourism has nearly recovered its total visitor cap. We're back to about 93%,” DiNapoli said at a press conference Thursday.

DiNapoli stressed that if the city’s tourism industry hopes to continue to recover, it will need to draw far more international visitors, especially from China.

“One example, we've seen fewer visitors coming from China. Chinese tourists spent the most, on average, during pre-pandemic tourism trends. The average amount spent by visitors from China has dropped — so not only have the total number of visitors dropped from China, but also the spending has dropped as well — by more than 30% since 2019,” he said. 

Despite the positive outlook, DiNapoli said challenges continue to persist as remote work continues to impact tourism and spending in large sectors of the city. 

“The rise in remote work has certainly impacted tourism-related revenue for the city. The impact on business travelers has been significant. It's going to take time for that to recover. And of course, there's a lot of speculation as to whether that will ever go back to the way the workplace was before the pandemic,” he said. 

DiNapoli said moving forward, the city will have to continue promoting itself both domestically and internationally. He said he sees hope for the future with upcoming events such as the FIFA World Cup and New York City’s 400th birthday celebration.

“These kinds of events, certainly, if we put a priority on promotion with regard to events like that, I think it helps to drive these numbers in an even more positive direction,” DiNapoli said. “These are opportunities for New York to play a leading role.”

When asked about if the plans to build to a casino in New York City will also help the tourism numbers, DiNapoli said the straight answer is "yes."

"The longer answer — we’ve always found when we’ve looked historically in New York, the kind of economic growth — be it revenue or job creation that’s ultimately projected, never quite comes in at the level that the proponents suggest," DiNapoli said.