It's time to lay any lingering concerns over Houston as a "cultural wasteland" to rest and start actively promoting the city's bounty of arts and culinary destinations to tourists, city officials said Thursday, kicking off the latest marketing and image campaign.

"Yes, it's hot. Yes, we have mosquitoes. Let's get over that," Mayor Annise Parker told a group of 700 at Houston First Corp.'s inaugural Tourism Summit on Thursday. "After they get here, people fall in love with the city. They don't want to leave."

Houston First, the city's main tourism arm, hopes to shift visitors' focus beyond the oil and gas business and to brand the city as the "culinary and cultural capital of the South." A new advertising and marketing blitz is part of its ambitious goal to boost visitors by 35 percent, to20 million annually, over the next three years.

Television spots feature famous Houstonians - members of ZZ Top, "Big Bang Theory" star Jim Parsons and singers Lyle Lovett and Kam Franklin - explaining what outsiders may be missing. The campaign includes images of not just the downtown skyline but also Midtown hot spots, fancy sushi bars, world-class museums and more.

In one commercial, Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top puts it more succinctly: "Houston is all about good music and Mexican food."

Last year, Houston had 14.8 million visitors, most of whom were in town to visit family or to conduct business.

The total was up from the previous year, but it remains far behind in-state rivals Dallas and Austin, each with 26 million visitors, and San Antonio, with 31 million. Outside of Texas, Chicago boasts 42 million annual visitors and New York City attracts 54 million.

The campaign is the first major initiative since the Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau was folded into Houston First last summer. Previous campaigns to promote Houston as a destination included such mottos as "Houston's Hot" and "Houston: Expect the Unexpected." Last year, the Greater Houston Partnership business group promoted "Houston: The City With No Limits."

Despite those efforts and the local popularity of its museums and attractions like the Kemah Boardwalk and Space Center Houston, the city faces a lingering perception problem, Parker said.

"We have to think of ourselves as a tourist destination, as a place someone would want to come and spend time," the mayor said. "For decades we have known ourselves to be an important business destination but didn't take the time to think about what travelers thought of Houston. It matters today."

Parker pointed to improvements in the city's network of hike-and-bike trails and the ongoing construction of a second convention center hotel. She noted the dramatic increase in international travel options at Houston's airports. She urged leaders to focus on leisure travelers.

Houston First created Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook accounts to draw millennial travelers. Next month, it will host a Mural Festival with 70 artists painting 17 walls over a seven-day stretch. A Market Square mural that shows the word "Houston" surrounded by bright, swirling colors and the words "Inspired, Hip, Tasty, Funky Savvy" inspired the mural project, and is meant to create a "sense of place."

Data collected by the group show that in 2014, Houston's share of young visitors was larger thanthe U.S. overall. More international travelers visit from Mexico than any other country, though the number of Chinese visitors is surging.

John Packer, with TNS Research, which analyzed the impact from tourism in Houston, said marketing efforts helped boost visitors by 21 percent in the third quarter of 2014. Data show most of those come from within the state and the greater Houston region.

A quarter of local visitors are here on business; vacationers account for 23.7 percent of the total; and non-vacation leisure travelers make up 51.2 percent.

"Residents really love their city, but folks from the outside don't feel that as much," Packer said.

The quasi-public Houston First owns the Hilton Americas-Houston hotel and manages several city-owned properties, including the George R. Brown Convention Center, Miller Outdoor Theatre, Wortham Center and Jones Hall for the Performing Arts. Revenue from those projects is helping to pay for the broader promotional efforts.

Since its acquisition of the Convention and Visitors Bureau, Houston First now has $8.8 million to spend on promoting the city, up from $5.1 million.

The arrival of international air carriers from Mexico, Turkey, China, South Korea, Japan, Sweden and New Zealand over the past two years should further help the city's tourism efforts, several speakers said.

"The idea that we are not a tourism destination is an idea that's dead," Houston First CEO Dawn Ullrich said. "We are a tourism destination; 14.8 million people seem to think so. But we could do better."

Panelist David Dunham, the Texas Monthly publisher, said Houston's sports teams, its Livestock Show and Rodeo and its cultural and restaurant scenes all could provide the kind of "spectacle" that visitors are drawn to. He recalled serving with the tourism arm in Austin around the time that city began to bill itself as the "Live Music Capital of the World."

"Is it the live music capital of the world? I don't know," Dunham said. "Does it matter? No. Everyone says it."

"In Houston you have done so many incredible things," added CBS News travel editor Peter Greenberg in a keynote address. "The problem is absolutely the perception. I'm still defending Houston, and I had the best time when I was here."