NEW YORK (AP) — The Big Apple is a bigger-than-ever tourist draw, welcoming a record 52 million visitors this year, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced Monday.

The estimate, up more than 1 million from last year, caps several years of effort to make the tourist trade into an economic development engine for the nation’s largest city. After reaching a goal of attracting 50 million annual visitors in 2011, Bloomberg has now set sights on 55 million by 2015.