Washington, Jan 1 : The Big Apple welcomed a record 52 million visitors in 2012, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has announced.

After reaching a goal of attracting 50 million annual visitors in 2011, Bloomberg has now set a record on 55 million by 2015.

According to the New York Post, Bloomberg said that the 2012 statistic `kept them on course to meet their goal'.

The city said that numbers of Brazilian and Chinese visitors have nearly quintupled since 2006.

The tourism numbers are based on a model that includes surveys, hotel data, airport traffic and other information and includes business travelers and vacationers.

According to the report, Bloomberg said that hotels, for instance, hit a new high of 29 million bookings for some 91,500 rooms citywide this year, up nearly 7 percent from 2011. (ANI)