NY tourism rebound expected after dismal ’09

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – After a recession-chilled 2009 summer travel season that many in New York state’s tourism industry would like to forget, 2010 is seeing a return of the summer vacation.

“I think people have a pent-up, inherent desire to travel and claim their vacations back,” stated Jan Marie Chesterton, president of the New York State Hospitality and Tourism Association.

With the school year ending this week across New York, indicators such as hotel and motel reservations and campground bookings are giving business owners and industry officials hopes of a rebound as the official begin of summer kicks in.

“We’re way ahead of where we were at this time last year,” stated Steve Puricelli, owner of the Lake Motel in Lake George, a popular tourist destination 50 miles north of Albany.

Despite a say budget stalemate that threatened to close many state-run parks, historic sites and campgrounds, those inexpensive, close-to-home attractions are drawing larger crowds this year.

Reservations at the 51 campgrounds operated by the say Department of Environmental Conservation are up by 3 percent as of this week compared to the same time last year. The 67 campgrounds run by the say parks office have seen a slight dip in reservations, but the bureau stated overall attendance at its parks, campgrounds and golf courses is up by more than 10 percent through the third week of June when compared to 2009.

At the begin of his second full summer in the motel business, Puricelli stated his bookings for June are up 50 percent over the same month last year. He shares much of the optimism Chesterton stated she is hearing from many of the tourism association’s 1,300 members, including 1,000 lodging businesses that account for 70 percent of room inventory in New York state.

“There’s some really healthy optimism out there. There’s a sense things are turning around,” she said.

Lingering concerns about the economic recovery are keeping many people closer to home when they do venture off on vacation, something that plays to the strengths of the New York destinations within a few hours’ drive of major East Coast cities.

Such proximity is what enticed Doug Van Clief and Kristen Jensen from their homes in Danbury, Conn., to Saratoga Springs for a short getaway.

“This is three hours from home. This was perfect for us,” stated Van Clief, who runs a financial services company. With five children between them, Van Clief and Jensen anticipate to return to upstate New York with their children later this summer, with visits to Niagara Falls or Cooperstown likely. Van Clief stated the recent economic turmoil had forced him to curtail more extravagant travel plans.

“Instead of one huge vacation, we like to break it up into three or four days,” he said.

Puricelli purchased his business in September 2008, when the Wall Street meltdown started and the nation’s economy took a nosedive. The 2009 summer, his first full one as a motel owner, turned out better than Puricelli expected, but overnight stays overall were down as much as 15 percent for many in the local lodging business, he said.

“Last year was the year no one thought was possible in Lake George,” Puricelli said. “They had probably never seen a year when it had that kind of decline.”

A study conducted for Empire State Development, the state’s economic development office, shows just how bad a year 2009 was for New York’s tourism industry.

According to the report from Tourism Economics, a Philadelphia-based consulting firm, visitors to New York say spent almost $45.8 billion in 2009, down from $53.1 billion the previous year, a 13.8 percent decline.

Every region of the say saw tourism spending dip in 2009, with New York City experiencing the largest decline, 15.4 percent. The city accounted for 63 percent of all tourism spending in the say last year, according to the report.

Tiffany Townsend, spokeswoman for NYC & Co., the city’s tourism office, stated the number of summertime visitors dropped from 12.25 million in 2008 to 11.9 million last year. She stated city officials are forecasting a return to 2008′s numbers, with 12 million-plus visitors expected this summer, based in part on hotel reservations and data from the federal government on the number of inbound foreign travelers.

Gary DeYoung, director of tourism for the 1000 Islands International Tourism Council, sees better days ahead for the region along the St. Lawrence River in northern New York. Thanks largely to a run of good weather in the spring, bordering crossings by Canadians are up almost 10 percent in June, giving the local tourism trade a kick-start heading into the summer season, DeYoung said.

Still, many visitors remain cautious about how much they spend, he said.

“They’re out and about, but they are not pulling out the credit card as quickly as they used to,” DeYoung said.

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Submited at Thursday, June 24th, 2010 at 10:00 am on News by alliana
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