By Gina Mintzer
Last year was quite a year to live, work and play in the Lake George region as we emerged from the pandemic, yet still reeling from various side effects.
Looking ahead for 2023 we are planning for much of the pre-pandemic typical cyclical business highs and lows that the tourism industry realizes due to seasonal travel patterns and annual events, yet still on guard for staffing and supply chain challenges and managing what we can for the best outcomes for our businesses, employees, and the community at large.
As we know, the tourism sector is crucial to our Lake George regional economy. The health of this industry affects all who live in the area, whether directly working in hospitality or not. Tourism dollars spent in the area help to offset the local tax burden by thousands of dollars each year. A robust tourism sector also means more attractions, dining, shopping and more to offer to residents as well.
The collaborative efforts that began among many cross-sections of our business community have continued to make our region stronger, nimble and safer. As customer service will continue to be a strong focus of business, we will see more focus on in-house training as each guest, for lodging, dining and retail are more important than ever to keep our business sustainable.
Based on successes of 2022, we are kicking off the year with major winter happenings.
As this is being written, we are experiencing warm weather that may impede our original hopes for January with the World University Games at Gore Mountain, Winterfest activities, Ice Castles and moving into February with Winter Carnival events.
Mother Nature will rule these first few weeks of the year. On the bright side, our Canadian visitors returned and that impact was felt during the holidays. We are planning to welcome them back in full force throughout the year with targeted marketing campaigns specifically around Canadian holidays, winter/spring school breaks and more.
The investment in the infrastructure throughout Warren County by the county as well as other organizations including individual towns, the Lake George Land Conservancy, the Lake George Association and others in hiking, biking, boating, fishing and other outdoor recreation is key to our continued success as more businesses warm up to being open year-round because of the new demand for the Lake George area that was generated throughout the pandemic.
The Lake George Regional Chamber of Commerce & CVB has enjoyed a high retention rate of members as well as strong demand for advertising in our Four-Season Travel Guide to the point whereby we are adding four pages of content and increased distribution out of the area to surrounding states.
Under our organization’s umbrella, investment in technology training, data and automation are on tap for our organization across all of our business units.
The Chamber, which has close to 470 members, the Lake George Regional Convention & Visitors Bureau (LGRCVB), a division of the Chamber and extension of the Warren County Tourism Department, and the Taste NY program at the Adirondacks Welcome Center are on the frontline with visitors throughout the year interacting with more than 275,000 people through various outlets.
The Chamber office, through calls, walk-ins, and inquiries; the seasonal Village Information Center staff and the Adirondacks Welcome Center team, assisted by the LGRCVB team, connect businesses with visitors each and every day.
Through enhanced data and other focused strategies, we will strive to assist our partners with destination management just as we did in a different way during the pandemic, yet with the same objective to keep our tourism economy healthy and vibrant.
Some strong focus will be on bus tours as the LGRCVB works hand in hand with the Warren County Tourism Department on enhancing outreach to this segment of group business and working closely with the county and Hood Communications on a new marketing initiative: lakegeorge.tv. The Adirondacks Welcome Center has produced a series of videos in conjunction with Advokate featuring local producers that will be rolled out over the coming months to showcase the variety and creativity of our regional farming and artisan community.
Exciting changes are happening for the Chamber administration as long-time staff retire and we usher in a new generation of board and staff management. Adaptability and collaboration are still priority keys to our success as we embark on another 70 years of service to our tourism economy.