“That individual travel market is the biggest opportunity,” Mr. Dixon said. “That’s the future of the Chinese market.”

Emily Rafferty, chairwoman of NYC & Company, said she had recently attended a conference in Shenzhen, China, and met a group of local university students. “They were all wanting to come over to America,” Ms. Rafferty said. “The number of people under the age of 35 there is huge.”

At the Museum of Chinese in America, on Centre Street in Manhattan, the boom in Chinese tourism has not really paid off yet. The president of the museum, Nancy Yao Maasbach, said the tourists tended to stick to the best-known destinations.

“Our strategy has actually been that the more popular we become in the U.S., the more popular we will become to Chinese tourists,” Ms. Maasbach said.

Mr. Dixon said the Chinese were still spending freely, while visitors from Europe were cutting back as the dollar strengthened and reduced the buying power of the euro and other currencies. He said NYC & Company had begun emphasizing value and bargains in some of its advertising to the British and other Europeans, including a campaign this winter called “See It for Yourself,” in partnership with British Airways.

Those audiences might be easier to impress, judging by the reactions of Tony Neville and James Hopkinson, two first-time visitors from Yorkshire, England, who fit in some sightseeing on Friday after completing a work project. Mr. Neville, 36, said New York was bigger than he had imagined.