Unlike what happens in Las Vegas, the experiences of visitors to New York City should stay with them after they return home. That is the philosophy behind the new advertising campaign from NYC & Co., the city's tourism marketing agency. The new advertisements, which will appear on television, in print and on billboards around the country and in Australia, Brazil and Europe, are the latest tools city officials are using to achieve Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's goal of drawing 50 million tourists annually by 2013. They are hoping that despite the declining buying power of the euro, tourism will bounce back this year after falling in 2009. Europeans carrying a strong currency that fueled shopping sprees on Fifth Avenue and binges at the city's best restaurants helped drive the tourism industry to new heights. As recently as summer 2008, the euro bought more than $1.50. Lately, it has been worth only about $1.22, prompting worries that the tide of visitors would ebb. But tourism has been rising this year, said George Fertitta, chief executive officer of NYC & Co. 'May was like gangbusters,' Fertitta said, adding that he believed that the number of visitors in 2010 could match the record 47 million who came in 2008. (The city counts as a visitor anybody who stays overnight or makes a day trip from beyond commuting distance.) According to preliminary data for May, compiled by PKF Consulting, hotels in Manhattan were about 90 percent full last month, possibly the highest occupancy rate ever for May. More important, the rates guests paid were 10 percent to 15 percent higher than in May 2009, said John Fox, senior vice president with PKF, a hotel-industry consulting firm. In the first four months of 2010, the average room rate was about $218, slightly lower than in the same period last year, according to PKF's numbers. Fox said that so far he had seen no sign that the falling euro had dampened enthusiasm for visiting New York. To encourage Americans and foreigners to keep coming, the city is unveiling the latest iteration of the 'This Is New York City' campaign that it began three years ago. The advertisements, which will start appearing this week, emphasize the energy and diversity of the city, using the theme 'See More. Be More.' They mix images of famous attractions like the Statue of Liberty, the Brooklyn Bridge and Yankee Stadium with shots of dishes and goods that can be purchased in restaurants and stores that are among the 2,000 members of NYC & Co. Jane Reiss, the city's chief marketing officer, said the message was a counterpoint to the oft-quoted 'What happens here, stays here' advertisements for Las Vegas. 'What happens here is transformative,' she said. 'It stays with you forever.' Until a few years ago, NYC & Co. was a private organization financed by dues collected from its members. But Bloomberg took control of it in 2007, installing Fertitta, a former advertising agency chief, as its manager and supplementing its annual budget with $15 million from the city. Then the mayor laid out his goal of increasing the number of annual visitors to 50 million, from 44 million in 2006. The original target for reaching that goal was 2015, but the mayor moved it up by a couple of years before the financial crisis hit. Fertitta said he expected that the new campaign would help get the city's tourism business back on track, even though his agency is not spending a lot to get its message out this summer. He estimated that it would receive exposure worth as much as $30 million, although NYC & Co. would spend only about $1.2 million -- not counting the costs of producing the campaign in-house. Instead of buying lots of airtime and space in newspapers and magazines, NYC & Co. is forging partnerships with corporations that want to link up with the city. In exchange, those companies -- American Airlines, American Express, AT&T, Travelocity and the Nickelodeon cable channel, using its Dora the Explorer cartoon character -- are promoting travel to the city. For example, during the first two weeks of the campaign, visitors who want to use their cell phones to gain access to the NYC & Co. website for help to find places to eat and shop will be able to do so only if AT&T provides their service. Customers of AT&T's competitors, like Verizon, will receive a 'sorry' message during those weeks, Reiss said. 