Courtesy Warren County Tourism
By Paul Post
Only a week after opening, more than 75,000 tickets had already been sold to a major new winter attraction that officials hope can contribute to transforming Lake George into true year-round tourist destination.
Visitors to Ice Castles—a 1.5-acre man-made sculpture with frozen 25-foot-high archways, tunnels and slides—are expected to spend more than $4 million for lodging, meals, fuel and similar services.
Located at Charles R. Wood Park’s Festival Commons, 17 West Brook Road, it coincides with this year’s 60th annual Lake George Winter Carnival, featuring a slate of fun activities each weekend in February.
“This is big, really big,” said long-time Mayor Robert Blais, who has worked to promote winter tourism for many years. “All the businesses that have been open all these years, that have struggled through the winter and supported the Winter Carnival, I say thanks to them. Now you’re going to be rewarded. To the ones that don’t stay open and take advantage of it, I say, ‘You don’t know what you’re missing’.”
In addition to Utah, where Ice Castles is based, the company has similar attractions in Minnesota, Wisconsin and New Hampshire. This is its first time in upstate New York.
“We researched it very carefully,” Blais said. “I called communities wherever Ice Castles has been or still is, and talked to the mayors and supervisors. It fills every (hotel) room that’s available.”
Room reservations at Fort William Henry Hotel & Conference Center are up nearly 20 percent, said Tom Wysocki, sales and marketing director.
