Nashville’s tourism industry broke another record with 16.1 million visitors in 2019, an increase of 6% compared to 2018’s 15.2 million visitors, the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp announced today.

Nashville’s New Year’s Eve event set a record with $26.6 million in direct visitor spending, a 16% increase compared to 2018’s $23 million.

Additionally, there were a record 25,529 hotel rooms 2019 sold on a New Year’s Eve, 1,681 more than the previous year. The free Jack Daniel’s Music City Midnight: New Year’s Eve in Nashville attracted more than 200,000 revelers compared to 175,000-200,000 the previous year.

The event also collected more than 7,500 pounds of food for Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee.

“Nashville should be proud of sustaining our momentum as a top destination, bringing in a record number of visitors from all over the world,” Nashville Mayor John Cooper said. “Our hospitality industry is thriving and will continue to play a critical role in generating revenue for both our local economy and essential city services.”

Key facts about Nashville’s hospitality industry from NCVC:

• Nashville sold about the same number of hotel rooms last year as Tampa and Philadelphia, and more than New Orleans, San Antonio, Charleston and Austin.

• The number of hotel rooms in Nashville has grown to 33,200, compared to 30,600 last year.

• There are 5,030 hotel rooms under construction with another 9,614 that are in the stages of final planning/planning/prospect with 14,644 rooms in the pipeline.

• 17 new properties with 3,455 rooms are scheduled to open in 2020, including three properties with 446 rooms that have already opened this year. 18 new hotel properties opened in 2019; 15 properties opened in 2018 with nine in 2017 and five in 2016.

• 112 new restaurants/bars/cafes opened in 2019, the third year in a row to exceed 100 openings. Already, 109 have been announced and are expected to open in 2020.

• Nashville International Airport is one of the fastest-growing airports in North America. It served nearly 18.3 million passengers in 2019 on 14 airlines with 540 total daily flights to 75 nonstop destinations.