Bloomberg touts global tourism initiative

Today, at the NASDAQ headquarters in Times Square, Mayor Bloomberg announced the first phase of “This is New York City,” a global multimedia communications campaign to promote New York City. NYC & Company, the organization dedicated to promoting the city, will roll out a global, comprehensive, multi-lingual campaign, including TV, print, online, and outdoor advertising in ten countries. The organization also revamped its Website, nycvisit.com, to include interactive customization tools that let users create a New York City experience.

Recently, I reported on the organization’s “Just Ask the Locals” NYC tourism campaign, initiated by the mayor to make NYC a more inviting place for visitors. The campaign effort was part of the mayor’s larger goal to attract 50 million visitors to New York City by 2015.

The new initiative, also part of that goal, will promote the city on a global scale, “to ensure that New York City is aggressively promoted throughout the world in an increasingly competitive tourism industry,” and to “combat negative perceptions of the US,” according to the press release. The ad campaign will use $30 million in advertising assets per year.