Wednesday, November 5, 2014 12:16pm ET by  
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Taylor Swift's New York Ambassador role defended: 'Her passion for the city is genuine'

Back in late October, 'Shake It Off' songstress Taylor Swift was named the global welcome ambassador for tourism in New York City by the area's marketing arm, NYC & Company

As news got out about Swift's new role, the criticism began rolling in because the beauty has only lived in the city for a matter of months and she was born in Reading, Pennsylvania and was subsequently raised in Nashville. 

Now, NYC & Company's president and chief executive Fred Dixon has hit out at critics for suggesting she shouldn't be in such a position and defended her, telling the Travel Trade Gazette: "Her passion for New York is very genuine and she wants to tell the world about it. New York is a city of immigrants, not many of us were born in New York - we've all followed our dreams there."

"We've done the traditional New Yorkers view of the city - this was an incredible opportunity for us to take one of the world's biggest pop stars and use her to talk to people about that dream of coming to NYC. Taylor has one of the largest social media presences in the world, and she has a huge millennial following, which is very important to us."

Dixon went onto add that Swift's involvement in this campaign is nothing sort of 'money can't buy' and she is deserving of the role: "They can be difficult to reach in an authentic way, and she does that for us. It's something money just can't buy."

 

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Watch Swift talking about her song 'Welcome To New York' below: