Singer Taylor Swift is defended by Fred Dixon, head of the New York tourist board, after she was criticised for landing the role as New York's ambassador.

He feels Swift's role shouldn't be called into question because New York is a "city of immigrants", reports femalefirst.co.uk.

"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," Dixon told Travel Trade Gazette (TTG).

"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," he said.

As Dixon, Swift, who was named New York City's Global Welcome Ambassador last month, can easily promote the city by reaching out to her million followers worldwide.

"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.

"They can be difficult to reach in an authentic way, and she does that for us. It's something money just can't buy," he added.