Nashville’s tourism industry broke another record with 15.2 million visitors to the city in 2018, an increase of almost 5 percent over 2017’s 14.5 million visitors, the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp announced today.

Nashville also set a record with $23 million in direct visitor spending on the city New Year's Eve celebration compared to $22.3 million in over 2017. Estimated attendance for that event was 175,000-200,000.

“2018 was another remarkable year for our city’s tourism industry,” Nashville Mayor David Briley says. “Major events like our New Year’s Eve and July 4th celebrations, the continued success of our sports teams, our ever-growing entertainment and music scenes, and even the establishment of British Airways’ nonstop flight from London once again showed that Nashville is a worldwide destination.

“The momentum will surely continue this year with the NFL Draft in April and Gold Cup soccer returning to Nissan Stadium in July. We should all be proud of our city and be grateful for the hard-working men and women who make our tourism industry thrive.”

Key statistics about Nashville’s hospitality industry, according to NCVC:

• The number of hotel rooms in Nashville has grown to 30,590 from 26,175 five years ago.

• There are 5,014 hotel rooms under construction with another 8,995 that are in the stages of final planning/planning/prospect with a total of 14,009 rooms in the pipeline.

• 20 new hotel properties have opened or will open in 2019; 15 properties opened in 2018 with nine in 2017 and five in 2016.

• 133 new restaurants/bars opened in 2018, compared to 113 in 2017 and 90 in 2016. Already, 60 have been announced and are expected to open in 2019.

• Nashville International Airport (BNA) is one of the fastest growing airports in North America. It served almost 16 million passengers in 2018 on 14 airlines with 460 total daily flights to 70+ nonstop destinations.