NEW YORK - Just days after cheering the arrival of the record-breaking 50 millionth visitor of the year to New York City, officials are starting over and counting from one.

Now, with the New Year's confetti cleared from Times Square and 2012 under way, the city's promoters are back at work hoping to draw another 50 million tourists - and more - in the coming 12 months.

With the value of the euro wavering, drawing some American travelers overseas and discouraging some Europeans from shelling out for international vacations, the year could prove challenging to those trying to lure visitors to New York City.

Attracting these leisure visitors and their business traveler counterparts is no idle pastime for the city. Officials say New York's tourism industry brought in $32 billion and supported about 320,000 jobs last year - a significant impact in a city that is struggling with budget shortfalls and the prospect of possible tough times for the financial sector that provides a significant portion of its tax revenue.

Analysts, too, are upbeat about the future of an industry that has been much-promoted by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who declared in 2006 that the city would reach 50 million yearly visitors by 2015, then later moved up the deadline to 2012, only to arrive at the goal a year early.

Since Bloomberg first announced the target, the yearly total of visitors - including day-trippers arriving from more than 50 miles away - has risen from 42.7 million in 2005 to 50.2 million in 2011 - an estimate the city arrives at, in part, through online and traveler surveys.

Over that time, the city has outpaced other top U.S. markets, booking about 20 percent more hotel stays than it did in 2005. But during that same six-year stretch, New York's hotel stays have grown more slowly than some of its competitor destinations around the world, such as London, Hong Kong and Berlin, according to Smith Travel Research.

With the number of international travelers worldwide booming, the race to attract visitors has become a global undertaking, and NYC & Company has opened offices around the world to attract the prized foreign tourists. They make up 20 percent of the city's visitors, but represent 50 percent of total visitor spending.

England supplies more overseas visitors to New York than anywhere else - and Italy and Ireland are also on the list of 10 countries sending the most visitors to the city. So NYC & Company will be carefully monitoring the impact of Europe's financial difficulties - as well as economic conditions at home, Fertitta says.

His organization will be launching marketing efforts to attract people from the affected areas - emphasizing affordability, offering discounts and trying to capitalize on this year's events. When the city hit its 50 millionth visitor of the year last month, the mayor feted a British couple at a very public press conference in Times Square, partly in the hopes of generating publicity back in England. And this year, ahead of the summer Olympics in July and August, they'll be looking into ways to attract Londoners who want to escape the crowds.

Fertitta says he believes that turmoil in the Middle East will also help the city, as European travelers who might otherwise have gone there turn toward New York.