http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/23/world/asia/china-new-york-lang-lang.html 2016-09-22 12:39:29 Lang Lang Is Named New York’s First ‘Cultural Tourism Ambassador’ With the pianist’s help, the city hopes to entice Chinese visitors to explore parts of the city outside Manhattan. === BEIJING — New York City, already a top international tourist destination, has a message for visitors from To spread that message and appeal to the growing number of Chinese tourists heading abroad, the city has named the superstar Chinese pianist At a ceremony outside Steinway Hall in Manhattan on Tuesday — or “Lang Lang Day,” as proclaimed by Mayor “This is part of an effort to grow Chinese travelers coming to New York,” said Christopher Heywood, senior vice president of global communications for For New York, that means encouraging travelers to venture beyond the standard-issue tourist sights and seek different experiences in the city’s boroughs outside Manhattan. “Each neighborhood has its own sound and rhythm,” Mr. Lang says in a Next to Dumbo, Mr. Lang wrote: “It’s an awesome neighborhood for dating, because there are so many restaurants and coffee shops.” In highlighting what Mr. Heywood called “off-the-beaten-path” experiences, the city is responding to a shift in Chinese tourism away from whirlwind, multicity group tours toward individual travelers who set their own itineraries. This shift is happening as Chinese tourism in the city has About 850,000 visitors from China went to New York last year, according to NYT & Company. The agency predicts that number will increase to around 920,000 this year and that China will soon overtake Brazil as the second-largest source of foreign visitors to New York, behind Britain. While some New Yorkers may say that their city does not lack for tourists, local officials say there is still room for growth. “We have a robust hotel development pipeline,” Mr. Heywood said. “So we have capacity to fill more of these hotel rooms and we also have a seasonal need to bring more visitors to New York in the first quarter of the year, which happens to coincide with the Chinese New Year holiday.” There is one other activity for which there appears to be insatiable demand and supply: shopping. Mr. Heywood noted the anticipation surrounding “Our job is to expand the horizon of the Chinese traveler to showcase the authentic experiences and the new opportunity,” Mr. Heywood said. “And Staten Island is just as much a part of New York City as Midtown.”