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December 3, 2008

Tourism industry guards against budget cuts

By KIM SMITH DEDAM

LAKE PLACID — Knives banging on the budget table have put the hospitality industry on high alert.

Pending cuts to financial resources throughout New York better not include anything of the $21 million I Love New York marketing funds, tourism leaders contend.

If anything, they want redistribution to add more tourism funding.

GENERATING TAXES
Officials from the New York State Hospitality and Tourism Association gathered more than 40 top Lake Placid hotel, motel and restaurant-industry leaders Wednesday at Lake Placid Lodge to discuss key issues on the legislative table.

In 2007, tourism generated $7 billion in state and local taxes, said Daniel C. Murphy, the association's president, "not to mention the 672,000 jobs it supports."

With Wall Street's economic driver in a downslide that he called a "toboggan ride" — and 20 percent of the state's income going down with it — now is no time to cut funds to an engine that keeps the economy moving, Murphy said.

"Our mantra is, if we are not at the table, we might be on the menu. But a lot of our legislators, unfortunately, have never met a payroll" and have no idea what it costs to run, market and sell hotel, resort or restaurant services.

Assemblywoman Teresa Sayward (R-Willsboro) sat at the head table during the breakfast meeting and nodded readily in agreement.

MARKETING FUNDS
The major issue, Murphy told the group, is protecting I Love New York money, a $21 million pot of funds used to finance brand-making tourism efforts worldwide.

It represents a fraction of the net result.

Visitors spent $52 billion in New York in 2007," he said; that's more than $9 million a day.

With Pennsylvania spending $34.5 million on marketing, the region has stiff competition.

The Hospitality and Tourism Association is also monitoring legislation that would dictate where venues spend "service charges" and "gratuities" and is lobbying against the national Employee Free-Choice Act, legislation that would eliminate central vote-gathering requirements for union organizers in the hospitality industry.

SMART GROWTH FUNDS
Jim McKenna, president and CEO of the Lake Placid/Essex County Visitors Bureau, raised several local tourism funding concerns.

Grant funding initiated in the Adirondack Smart Growth program last year may go on the chopping block, he said.

The funds were intended to foster uniquely Adirondack green initiatives to bring communities together.

"I would encourage state lawmakers to keep that program," McKenna said. "If they want this area to remain pristine and unique, then they have to treat it that way."

Sayward said she believed the Smart Growth money would stay in the budget at least for next year. She encouraged local tourism leaders to meet with elected officials.

Years ago, she said, McKenna convinced the Essex County supervisors to buy into a collective marketing plan.

"Jim always came armed with a bunch of statistics. Numbers are important, numbers that particularly equate to dollars."

PAIN
Everybody is gong to end up feeling some of the pain, Sayward said.

But part of what lawmakers are doing is "peeling back the layers, economically speaking, to see, what can we not afford to mess with?"

In some cases, she said, additional monies could be spent to keep people working and keep visitors coming.

Affordable-housing initiatives should be maintained, McKenna said, as critical to the tourism industry.

He also called for additional support for infrastructure in Adirondack towns and for programs to help build small-business opportunity, such as new motels and visitor amenities.

"Adirondack communities need to be in a position to drive tourism."

E-mail Kim Smith Dedam at: kdedam@pressrepublican.com

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