Big Apple
"The Big Apple" was popularized as a name for New York City by John J. Fitz Gerald in a number of horse-racing articles for the "New York Morning Telegraph" in the 1920s. The earliest of these was a casual reference on 3rd May, 1921:
Greeter
The first Greeter initiative was New York's Big Apple Greeters, founded by Lynn Brooks in 1992. It was hoped that the program, sponsored by Manhattan borough president Ruth Messinger, would improve New York's reputation as a "dangerous, expensive and overwhelming" place by letting tourists see it through the eyes of its residents. This idea soon spread to a variety of tourist destinations across the world.