Poll: New York top tourist destination

Hundreds of tuba players fill the air with holiday tunes at the annual "Tuba Christmas" holiday concert at Rockefeller Center in New York.

NEW YORK (CNN) -- New York City has emerged the top tourist city in the nation among respondents to a national poll, the results of which were released Monday.

Two-thirds of respondents said they would visit in the coming year if they had the time and money, the Quinnipiac University poll said. Quinnipiac is a private coeducational school in Hamden, Connecticut, near New Haven.

Thirteen percent of those asked named New York as the major United States city they'd most like to visit, followed by San Francisco and Las Vegas with 6 percent each, and Orlando, Honolulu and Los Angeles with 5 percent each.

More than one in five (22 percent) of respondents said they plan to visit the Big Apple in the next year or so, 65 percent of them solely for pleasure, and 66 percent said they would visit New York City in the next year or so if they could afford it and had the vacation time.

EXTRA INFORMATION While the Quinnipiac poll indicates New York's popularity among respondents, the city's merchants say a downturn in tourism is hurting their prospects  for a strong holiday retail season.

"From sea to shining sea, Americans give high marks to New Yorkers in general -- and to Mayor Rudolph Giuliani in particular -- in the aftermath of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center," said Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

Also among the poll's findings:

- Forty percent said they have a "very positive" image of New York, 37 percent said they have a "somewhat positive" image, while 15 percent have a "somewhat negative" or "very negative" image.

MORE STORIES New York's Christmas spirit endures

- Forty-three percent rated New York as an "excellent" or "good" place to live, while 51 percent rate it "not so good" or "poor."

- Eighty-five percent rated New York as an "excellent" or "good" place to visit, while 12 percent rate it "not so good" or "poor."

- Sixty-one percent said they have a "better" impression of New Yorkers after the September 11 terrorist attacks, while 2 percent reported having a "worse" impression and 35 percent said it was "about the same."

- Sixty-eight percent said they have a favorable opinion of Giuliani, while 3 percent reported an unfavorable opinion, with 9 percent mixed and 20 percent saying they haven't heard enough about him.

- Those polled split 48 percent to 45 percent on whether New York should host the 2012 Summer Olympics.

- By 72 to 22 percent, poll respondents said the World Trade Center should be rebuilt.

- Ten percent said another major terrorist attack in New York City in the near future is "very likely," while 32 percent said it is "somewhat likely," 36 percent said it is "not very likely," and 16 percent say it is "not likely at all."

A major terrorist attack somewhere in the United States in the near future is "very likely," 31 percent said, while 43 percent considered it "somewhat likely," 17 percent say it is "not very likely," and 7 percent say it is "not likely at all."

The poll of 1,410 adults nationwide was taken November 29 to December 5. Its margin of error is plus-or-minus 2.6 percentage points.