Honolulu continues to rank as one of the U.S.'s top metropolitan tourism destinations, according to a newly released study.

The annual top 100 U.S. tourism cities by Global Insight placed Honolulu as the 14th-highest destination in terms of tourism spending in 2007, up one spot from a year earlier.

Honolulu also ranked No. 1 in terms of the number of visitors needed to create a single-full time position, the length of stay of its visitors and their spending habits.

For every 20 visitors that travel to Hawai'i, a full-time equivalent job is created, Global Insight said. The next closest city in the top 20 destinations was Miami, where it takes 65 visitors to create a position.

The annual ranking by Global Insight attempts to compare domestic and international tourism spending, tourism job creation and the degree to which each city's economic vitality is dependent upon visitors.

Ken McGill, managing director of Global Insight's travel and tourism group, said Honolulu's No. 1 position in the job creation ranking shows the vitality that tourism brings the local economy. He said the jobs created are not just in tourism, but can be indirectly linked to the industry such as those that support tourism workers, like a bank teller or others outside the business.

"There's no doubt that 20 visitors bring enough spending to support one job," McGill said. He said while the research establishes that correlation, it doesn't mean that when visitor counts drop by 20, that one employee is laid off. He said there is no direct cause and effect and that hirings and firings occur with tourism arrival changes over time.

The report also included a job dependency index, which relates the importance of tourism to an economy. New York City, which ranked first in spending, only had a 0.3 index score because New York's economy is diversified with large financial services, publishing and other sectors.

Honolulu, on the other hand, was at 1.8, or third highest among the top 20 cities.

"That shouldn't be a surprise," said McGill. "Tourism is such an important industry to you."

Orlando had the highest dependence with an index score of 2.4, while Las Vegas was at 2.1.