The city is drawing more tourists than ever before, and that's proving to be a major boost for New York's economy.

Back in 1997, 33 million tourists came to the city every year.

In 2017, that number nearly doubled to 63 million.

A new report by the Center for an Urban Future says all these tourists are also fueling a surge in job creation for the city's hospitality industry.

Almost 300,000 New Yorkers are directly employed by the industry with the average salary being nearly $62,000 per year.

And tourism is not just helping the creation of jobs, but helps small businesses stay afloat.

"It's great for business. That's 99 percent of our sales, at least. At least in the shop. Online it's you know our regulars, but yeah if we didn't have the tourists, we wouldn't exist," said Jennifer Richards, a jewelry vendor.

The report also says that four out of five tourists are from within the U.S.

But, the numbers for international tourists are growing at a faster rate.