Lake Placid
www.lakeplacid.com
High Peaks Resort
www.highpeaksresort.com
Follow High Peaks on Twitter or Facebook
Santa's Workshop
www.northpoleny.com
As industries crumble, Lake Placid officials and businesses are hoping to bank on current trends to stay solvent.
"When you think of New York state, what do you think of?" North Elba Town Supervisor Roby Politi asked.
"I think New York City, Niagara Falls and the Adirondacks."
Yet recent polls aren't exactly singing the tourism industry's praises.
An AOL and Zogby poll of more than 2,000 travelers said that 52 percent have smaller vacation budgets this year, and 30 percent want to spend $1,000 or less, a news release from the Lake Placid Visitor's Bureau reported recently.
Seemingly proving that, vacation destinations such as Hawaii, Las Vegas and Orlando have seen significant declines in tourism over the past year.
"Last year was a banner year," Politi said. "But that was before the economic downturn, so I don't think you can compare it to last year."
And while there has been a decline, officials say it hasn't been that bad.
"It's a slight advantage being situated near major urban centers, just 200 or 300 miles from cities like New York, Philadelphia, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal," James McKenna, president of the Lake Placid-Essex County Visitor's Bureau, said in the release.
It's that sort of edge that local businesses are counting on, particularly as international businesses falter.
"Lake Placid drives the region," Politi said. "If it's busy here, it's busy everywhere."
But ways must be found to draw visitors.
"Businesses here are taking an aggressive stance," Jon Lundin, spokesperson for the Lake Placid-Essex County Visitor's Bureau, said. "They're educating the customers that the time to take a vacation is now. Here's the way to do it."
Many businesses are seeing the potential of social-networking Web sites.
Quick searches can net Web surfers information rapidly and provide a unique experience for both the business' owner and their customers.
High Peaks Resort, formerly the Lake Placid Hilton, is an example.
The quality resort is located on Main Street overlooking Mirror Lake. Rooms average $300 a night.
But, leading up to the summer season, customers could net a hotel stay for substantially less by using online social mediums.
"People are always asking us, 'High Peaks Resort, why High Peaks?'" Bill Gathen, director of marketing at High Peaks Resort, said.
That's because of the 46 peaks in the Adirondacks.
"Every day, for 46 days, we'd highlight a peak," Gathen said. "For 46 minutes a day, the rate for a room would match the mountain height that's been featured."
So, Mt. Skylight, for example, has an elevation of 4,926 feet. For that day's online promotion, a room costs $49.26 a night instead of $300.
"People (were) staying here for a weekend for $100," Gathen said.
Only people who followed them on Twitter or Facebook received the promotion, however.
"It's a little reward for anyone following us and our friends," he said. "Businesses and hotels are starting to see this as a model that works."
Using these same sites, their customers would post pictures of their trip on Facebook, Tweet on their appreciation, or even ask High Peaks Resort questions before they arrived.
"They tell us they had a great time, that it's their anniversary — and if we know it's their anniversary, then we try to do something special, maybe a bottle of champagne in their room.
"We don't care if they are spending $46 or $300 — you're a guest."
That promotion ended June 18, but a summer promotion has begun.
"After the success of the social-media campaign, how could we not?" Gathen asked.
Just like the previous campaign, it offers deals to followers and friends on their Twitter and Facebook accounts. Daily, online updates educate their potential customers about the region.
The summer campaign, dubbed "A Summer to Remember," recognizes the 101 people on the Hall of Fame displayed by the Olympic Authority in Lake Placid.
Each day, as they count down to the number one, online followers receive a dollar off their room rate to equal the day's Hall of Fame number, if they booked in time.
"Obviously the saving isn't as much, but I am a firm believer that if you can introduce someone to the area, you'll have a fan for life," Gathen said.
"And we'd love it if, when they come back to Lake Placid, they say we have to stay at High Peaks Resort."
The Amusement Park business isn't exactly booming either.
"All of the parks are going down 20 percent each year (in visitors)," said Matt Stanley, park operations manager at Santa's Workshop.
The amusement park, located in Wilmington on Memorial Highway, opened for its 60th year yesterday.
But, in a climate where Six Flags Theme Park has announced bankruptcy, Santa's Workshop doesn't expect a free ride.
"It'd be kind of naive to say that the rest of the world is down 20 percent, but we're going to be fine," Stanley said.
"We expect there is going to be less people in the area."
So, they're cutting their business hours.
The park will now be open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Up until this year, they had been open seven days a week, but the rate of visitors has declined over the years.
The biggest day for the park was in 1952 when they had almost 15,000 visitors. By comparison, they have 1,200 to 1,500 daily now.
But the park has changed as well.
"Back when the park was new, the time spent in the park was one to two hours," Stanley said. "The average visit is now four to six hours."
Breakfast with Santa and the other storybook characters has stayed, but now there are more displays, rides, shows, an arcade and other activities.
"The people that come here are usually (in the area) for a couple of days," Stanley said.
So, Tuesday and Wednesday tend to be the busiest days.
"I'm not sure if that's just when they come to see us, or how it works that way," Stanley said.
"But, in order to be competitive, we have to do this and get it out there that we are only open five days a week."
In the wake of the online marketing campaigns and shifts of business practices, the Chamber of Commerce in Lake Placid has also been holding brainstorming sessions with local businesses.
"The intent is to develop a short-term strategy for ensuring the Lake Placid region stays in the forefront of the media's mind," Lundin said.
In the meantime, it seems travel trends might be on their side.
A TripAdvisor poll of 3,000 U.S. travelers said that 73 percent planned to visit a national park in 2009, up from 62 percent a year ago.
Fifty-three percent will go hiking in the coming year, up from 50 percent last year; and 47 percent plan to engage in adventure activity, up from 40 percent from last year.
"We're within driving distance of roughly 4 million people," Lundin said. "And being that we're a 6 million-acre park, we have a huge playground."
A playground that might just offer that sort of vacation.
"I think there is a pent-up (desire) in people for a vacation because they didn't get one last year," Lundin said.
"And I think families are going to be much simpler this year. They're going to be looking for things like hiking, canoeing and kayaking."
And summer is just starting.
Running through July 5 is the Lake Placid Horse Show, followed by the Saranac Lake rugby tournament, lacrosse tournaments, Lake Placid Marathon and half-marathon, and the Lake Placid Iron Man.
"The July 26th Ironman race has become the leading revenue-producing event in our county, with an estimated $10 million in direct spending leading up to and during the race weekend," the news release said. "This includes the $375,000 generated in Essex County sales tax."
"It's a busy summer season, and I think that people are going to be driving to Lake Placid rather than out of the area," Politi added.
"And I think you really have to wait and see if they are going to spend their money here, which I think they will.
"I'm an optimist."
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