By Maureen Werther
The Glens Falls Collaborative is exploring the possibility of developing a wide-ranging hospitality training initiative to promote Glens Falls as a destination for businesses, tourism and entertainment.
The training would involve people who have the most occasion to interact with visitors to the city, such as the sales clerks in convenient stores, restaurant workers and others who have daily opportunities to talk to visitors about what their city has to offer, according to organizers of the program.
Richard Cirino, president of the Glens Falls Collaborative, said the group has sent out questionnaires to approximately 600 different organizations to gauge demand for the training initiative.
“The questionnaire will help us decide how to move forward. After we decide if the demand is there, we will begin to determine how to fund and implement the training,” said Cirino.
The idea for a city-wide training initiative, that would give employees the education and tools to promote the region, evolved from a conversation about constructing a “welcome center” in Glens Falls.
“Then we started to think about it and we gradually began to move away from a physical center to cultivating a hospitality mentality,” said Cirino. He added that people working as clerks in convenient stores and retail shops should be thought of as hospitality workers.
“These are the people on the front lines. If we can give them more knowledge of the area, they can help visitors see and discover things that they may otherwise have been unaware of,” he said.