(nixter)
Tourism can be seen as a reward on its own — you travel somewhere new, see some sights, take home a snow globe (not in your carry-on, of course). But in the case of one couple from England, they were given an actual prize just for being the 50 millionth visitors to New York City.
Craig and Lucy came to the city to get married atop Rockefeller Center with their two children, says TheTelegraph. How could a trip get any better? That’s when Mayor Michael Bloomberg stepped in with a big surprise, dubbing them the 50th millionth visitors.
As part of their coronation, the twosome received a Golden Ticket to the city, a $10,000 gift card, $10,000 more in a travel package to return to NYC in 2012, vouchers to spend on stores and restaurants in the city, and tickets to a Broadway show.
This year has been good to the city so far as tourism goes, with around 50.2 million visitors by the end of 2011. Around one million of those come just from the United Kingdom.
I’d like a Golden Ticket the next time my train refuses to come for 20 minutes. How about it, Mike?
British couple wins ¬£12.5k as New York’s 50 millionth visitors [Telegraph]
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Whats all this then?
Beats me
You appear to be pissing upon my leg.
This sucks…. the totally cut in line in front me me making me the 50,000,001st visitor!
I demand a recount!
Ok thats a lot of “me’s”. Obviously it should read “in front of me”, but you get the idea.
I read it as, “They totally cut in front of me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me!!!”
BUT I WANT AN OOMPA LOOMPA NOW!
“I dub thee the 50 millionth visitor!”
I can tell that them getting married at the top of the Rockefeller had absolutely nothing to do with Mike’s decision to give them the prize.
That’s pocket change to them! Probably costs at least that much to get married up there anyhow. And where did that money come from?
I’m curious how one counts the number of tourists a city receives.
All those post-9/11 cameras and one dedicated police officer.
You pick the most sympathetic and photogenic tourist from a randomly chosen plane at JFK and call it a day?
It would’ve been awesome if they’d chose a non-english speaking tourist whose reason for the visit is to illegally immigrate in the US.
50 millionth – give or take a few thousand with less romantic stories.
I’m sure the real 50 millioner was from Arizona, stayed at a Super 8 in Queens and went to see Miss Saigon before heading back to the Greyhound station
I know those gift cards would not have helped my trip there, unless one was for “romance”.
Yeah, I’m sure their romantic reason for coming had nooothing to do with it. The real 50,000,000 was a drug runner.
Why are we letting foreigners come in and take our prizes? Weren’t there any qualified Americans?
At least they will get to learn the fun of paying US taxes on their winnings. Are they sure it was really the mayor and not some elaborate scam? (“You’ve won all these prizes, but you’ll need to pay the taxes before you can accept them. Do you need our Western Union account number?”)
Tax payers get soaked again.
How so? The prizes were provided by NYC & Company, a private non-profit corporation, which is the official tourism marketing organization for the city. I’m guessing the city government didn’t provide much to this endeavor beyond the mayor’s presence (or they simply checked the mayor’s couch cushions and found enough to pay for everything).
That cheap bastid doesn’t carry ANYTHING in his pockets.
I don’t know whether this particular campaign helps much, but taxpayers would really get soaked without tourism dollars in general.
I wish Dear Leader Bloomberg would give those of us who actually live in NYC and pay taxes to NYC some of these perks,
<blink> You are the 1,000,000th visitor to the Consumerist! Click here to claim your prize! This is not a joke. </blink>
This sounds like one of those online ads. All they have to do is fill out these credit card applications and in 6-12 weeks they will be given their gift card.