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Tourism is rapidly becoming the world’s biggest industry, and America remains one of the most popular destinations, thanks to its natural treasures but also to its unique cultural wealth, a significant portion of which is concentrated within a few miles of New York City. Nearly 119 million Americans say they included at least one of fifteen arts, humanities, historic, or heritage activities or events while traveling in 2002. In fact, visiting a museum is now the third most popular activity among all tourists.
The number of artworks produced in world history is beyond computation, but the number of first-class art collections in existence exceeds 1,000. Of these, The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s ranks among the greatest and largest — with over 2 million artifacts spanning 5,000 years of world culture, from prehistory to the present, and from every part of the globe. Of the 300 museums in the Big Apple, the Metropolitan is the city’s crown jewel, attracting on average approximately 5 million visitors each year.
