Los Angeles reached a historic tourism milestone in 2018, surpassing the 50 million mark and setting new records for both domestic and international visits.
Along with hosting 42.5 million domestic visitors, the city also attracted 7.5 million international tourists, marking a 3 percent and 3.6 percent rise respectively, compared to 2017.
Overall, the City of Angels saw a three percent spike in tourist visits last year, equal to 1.5 million more visitors compared to 2017.
The biggest source markets include Mexico, with 1.8 million visitors, and China, at 1.2 million visitors.
The numbers also mark all-time highs for both countries (LA is the number one-ranked US city for Chinese travelers).
Other international markets to record their highest visitation totals in 2018 include Canada with 780,000; the UK with 382,000; Japan at 349,000; Scandinavia with 190,000; and India at 130,000.
The city's tourism board attributes its record-breaking performance to LA's growing reputation as a culinary and cultural destination and the addition of more hotel rooms and international seat capacity to Los Angeles International Airport.
Los Angeles is also positioning itself as the sports capital of the world.
New York City also announced this week that it had broken tourism records in 2018, with 65.2 million visitors descending on the Big Apple last year. Britons made up the biggest international source market in 2018, followed by China, Canada, Brazil and France.
