Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti and Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board president Ernest Wooden have announced the city welcomed 47.3 million visitors in 2016, surpassing mid-year forecasts and breaking visitation records for the sixth consecutive year.

The new record is 1.7 million visitors higher than the 2015 total, an increase of 3.8 per cent from the previous year.

New tourism records were set for overall domestic and international visitation.

Total domestic visitation reached 40.2 million, a 3.8 per cent increase over 2015, and 7.1 million international visitors made Los Angeles their ultimate destination, a 3.5 per cent increase over the previous year.

In 2016, Los Angeles also became the first ever US city destination to welcome more than one million visitors from China, the destination’s number two international market behind Mexico.

China alone accounted for 75 per cent of the destination’s overall international growth, derived from the market’s year-over-year growth of nearly 22 per cent - the seventh consecutive year of at least 20 per cent visitation growth for China.

The UK saw an increase of 2.3 per cent from 2015, totalling 362,000 visitors in 2016.

“Tourism is booming in Los Angeles, and it’s helping to drive our whole city’s economy forward,” said Garcetti.

“My goal is to welcome 50 million tourists to our city by 2020, and new attractions like the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art will have even more people from around the world lining up to come to L.A.”

Tourism is among the largest and healthiest contributors to the Los Angeles economy, supporting an average of more than 500,000 jobs in the hospitality sector last year.