NYC & Company, New York's tourism
marketing organization, opened several overseas offices in the last
year, enough to more than double its international presence, it
said at a press conference during the ITB travel fair in Berlin
last week.
It now operates
11 international offices covering 19 countries, with the most
recent openings in Russia, Scandinavia, Spain and the
Netherlands.
Chris Heywood,
public relations director for travel and tourism, said NYC &
Company is looking to expand further in the next year or so,
beginning with a Japan office this spring. It is starting
negotiations to open one or two offices in China and is looking at
Australia, Brazil, India and South Korea.
Heywood said New
York's global reach is now almost certainly unequaled by any other
U.S. CVB; it is part of a previously announced effort to attract 50
million visitors to the city annually by 2015.
An estimated 44
million people visited New York in 2006, which puts the city ahead
of its schedule for reaching that target.
The organization,
strengthened by its mid-2006 merger with NYC Marketing and NYC Big
Events, also is working with unprecedented funding.
Mayor Michael
Bloomberg pledged an additional $15 million annually for at least
five years, earmarked for international expansion (for a total
operating budget this year of $45 million).
NYC & Company
also has $60 million in media and promotional assets, which it aims
to harness to attract more big events as well as to lure tourists
from a broader range of overseas sources.
The promotional
assets include media space on bus shelters and phone kiosks as well
as radio and TV ads, space that will be traded for comparable
positions in international markets. In addition, NYC & Company
manages a licensing program which, for example, enables it to sell
official New York City apparel.
Also, the CVB is
considering making its Web site transactional, Heywood said.
To contact the reporter who wrote this article, send e-mail
to Nadine Godwin at [email protected].