MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

“This is New York” campaign targets 50 m. tourists by 2015

Tourists carry shopping bags through Times Square

Tourists love New York and lots of them visit the Big Apple but the city says that's not enough so it is spending big money on a new ad campaign. The goal is to attract 50 million tourists a year by 2015 with the slogan “This is New York”.

The television commercial advertising all that New York City has to offer is beginning in Ireland, the U.K., France and Spain. It's a 30 million US dollars campaign to boost tourism which represents for NY a 25 billion US dollars industry and creates 350.000 jobs. "I don't know anybody who isn't thrilled to have tourists" said New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg on the launching of the campaign. "People may not like crowds sometimes, but Times Square, if it's not crowded, is a very big problem." A website in 10 languages was launched at nycvisit.com. The campaign was announced the same week when thirty years ago the city launched its famed "I love New York", the capital of the world, the city that never sleeps. Last year 43 million people visited New York which signaled a record. And international tourism is up 9% thanks to a weak dollar that makes New York a bargain fro strong currency Europeans, Asians and Latinamericans. However in spite of Mayor Bloomberg's enthusiasm some people are asking if New York really needs the advertising? Bloomberg wants to increase tourism in New York by about 14% which means that by the year 2015, New Yorkers will share their city with 50 million tourists every year.