A simple stroll around Times Square is enough to show that iPhones, iPads and other smartphones and tablets have virtually replaced paper maps, guidebooks and even digital cameras among the tourists visiting New York City. 

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

The Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum is working to reopen this week for the first time since Sandy hit. The museum, which is based on a retired aircraft carrier anchored on Manhattan's West Side, sustained heavy damage to its Welcome Center and the electrical systems on its pier.

It's UN General Assembly week in New York, which means that there are hundreds of dignitaries visiting from around the world. Immigrants, where would you take your home-county's leader? Suggest a spot, tell us what you'd do, and add your pick to our interactive map below!

The Cuomo administration wants to rebrand the iconic I ♥ NY logo. Capital New York editor Tom McGeveren and Donna Quadri-Felitti, a professor of hospitality and tourism management at NYU, discuss the history of the logo, how we brand our city and state, and the tourism industry today. Listeners: What do you make of the logo re-mix? What would you put in the middle of I [[Blank]] NY? Let us know!

A judge in the Netherlands has approved a government plan to prevent foreigners from entering cannabis cafes. Anna Holligan is a reporter for our partner the BBC.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg has enlisted The Muppets to help attract more families to the city as part of his push to get 55 million visitors a year to come to the Big Apple by 2015.

This year, hundreds of thousands of Americans will travel abroad, not to see ancient ruins or visit historic sites, but to undergo affordable medical care. These medical tourists will go to Mexico, Thailand, Costa Rica and elsewhere for everything from root canals to hip replacements. And while this type of tourism has been around for decades, it’s become more and more popular as health-care costs in the U.S. continue to rise. Paul Vehorn is a behavioral psychologist who’s visited Thailand for two different procedures, and James Surowiecki is a journalist with the New Yorker who explores what the bigger economic implications of medical tourism might be in his article entitled “Club Med.”

What exactly happened on board the Costa Concordia? How did a luxury cruise go so wrong? Expertise in the psychology of risk perception, the explanation for why our perception of and response to risk sometimes seems pretty irrational. We’re too afraid of some things, and not afraid enough of others, which sometimes leads to new risks all by itself.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that New York will reach 50.2 million visitors by the end of 2011, a milestone for the city. Are you a tourist? Call in and tell us your stories or ask Brian a question. Are you hosting a tourist? What is your experience?

Fewer tour buses than expected have been dropping off visitors to the September 11 memorial at the World Trade Center. Most ticket holders are arriving to the site using mass transit.

New York City hotels are capitalizing on the growing number of business and leisure travelers coming to the city by raising their prices. The average daily room rate in May was $252, up nearly 9 percent from the same time a year ago, according to the hotel research firm Smith Travel Research.

It’s been one year since the Deepwater Horizon oil rig blew up in the Gulf of Mexico. All week, The Takeaway is talking to Gulf Coast residents about how the spill has affected their lives. Today, we check in with Southern writer Rick Bragg, author of "All Over but the Shoutin."

A record 48.7 million tourists visited New York City last year, a figure that shows the industry is on the rebound from the recession, Mayor Bloomberg said Tuesday.

At a time when citizens in Britain are bracing for sharp spending cuts, Prince William, the heir to the throne, proposed to his longtime girlfriend Kate Middleton. Many Britons hope the upcoming wedding will be a boost to the country's economy, with people in industries ranging from tourism to fashion and food retail reaping the financial benefits of the media storm. But some economists say royal weddings do not bring as much revenue they once did. We talk with Gillian Tett, a managing editor of the Financial Times, about the tourism revenue the wedding could bring in.

On Tuesday, French police arrested 12 people suspected of planning homegrown terror attacks. The arrests come on the heels of a non-specific terror warning from the U.S. State Department for Americans traveling in Western Europe, encouraging tourists to "take every precaution." While waiting for more details about the alleged terror threat in Europe to emerge, Americans abroad are assessing how seriously they'll take the State Department's warning to be vigilant and aware.

The images we often associate with Iraq are of destruction, war and dysfunction. But one man hopes to show people another side of the country, with a lovely tour down a Kurdistan river.  

There seems to be some progress under the ocean at the Gulf of Mexico's spill site, where a newly installed containment cap is capturing a portion of the gushing oil. On the water's surface, however, the inexorable spread of oil is making its way as far east as Pensacola, Florida, where it is threatening lives and livelihoods across the Gulf coast.

In the wake of Arizona's new immigration law, the state is facing a growing public relations problem, and big potential losses in tourism and other forms of revenue. Everyone from convention-goers to bands on tour are avoiding the state, and the city of Phoenix predicts a loss of $90 million over the next five years because of these cancellations. We want to know from you: If you were to rebrand YOUR state, what slogan would you come up with? Tell us in six words or fewer.