AP Photo/Disney, Gene Duncan

Just as the stage appeared set for Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg to take bows for the achievement of one of his more audacious goals, he was upstaged on Tuesday by the mayor of the city that Mickey Mouse built.

Buddy Dyer, the mayor of Orlando, announced that, upon further review, his city was the first in the United States to surpass 50 million visitors in a calendar year. In 2010, Orlando drew 51.45 million tourists and displaced New York City as the most-visited place in the country, Mr. Dyer and other Florida officials proclaimed.

The figure represented an upward revision of an earlier estimate Orlando had made of its 2010 tourism total. In January, Orlando tourism officials said they believed that about 48.6 million people visited last year.

Mr. Bloomberg had trumped that figure when he announced on Jan. 4 that New York had drawn several more busloads of people per day in 2010 — a total of 48.7 million, which put the city back on track to reach his goal of attracting 50 million annual visitors by 2012.

With tourism continuing to rise, fueled by the sustained strength of foreign currencies against the dollar, most signs pointed toward a grinning Mr. Bloomberg congratulating some ready-for-prime-time visitor as the magical 50-millionth tourist during the coming holiday season.

While that would be a first for New York, it would still rank as the second city to lay claim to having reached that milestone.

But George A. Fertitta, the man in charge of marketing New York to potential visitors around the world, was not accepting second-city status. He said the city was on pace to exceed 50 million visitors this year and suggested that the Floridians were including people who never set foot in the city of Orlando. (Disney World is 25 miles away.)

“We’re not in competition with Orlando,” Mr. Fertitta said. “They’re saying that they grew by 10 percent, which seems extraordinary. If it’s accurate, God bless them.

“I never heard of their goal being 50 million,” Mr. Fertitta added. “That’s Mike Bloomberg’s goal.”