Last year was a landmark year as the Cayuga County Office of Tourism celebrated its 10th anniversary of incorporation. As I have been the executive director of the organization for almost nine of those 10 years, I take particular pride in our growth and achievements.

To celebrate 10 years of promoting Cayuga County, the Office of Tourism planned 10 events from April through December that brought recognition to our tourism programs both locally and regionally. The celebration kicked off with the “Be a Tourist in Your own Back Yard” campaign setting the tone for the rest of the anniversary celebrations. A trivia contest featured in The Citizen, “Tourism Night” at Falcon Park and a familiarization tour of northern Cayuga County followed with a big anniversary party at Willard Memorial Chapel in December ending the year with more than 70 people in attendance to honor tourism promoters past and present.

Along with our 10th anniversary celebrations, the Cayuga County Office of Tourism continued to develop and expand its ongoing programs to promote Cayuga County and provide visitor information including producing publications, advertising, maintaining a tourism information center, public relations programs, the www.tourcayuga.com Web site, brochure distribution at travel and tourism shows and information centers, participation in regional and multi-county promotional programs, plus advocacy and research programs. Overall, the Cayuga County Office of Tourism supplied visitor information directly to 62,319 people in 2005, not including those that we cannot accurately quantify (brochures distributed at information centers, attractions, and travel and trade shows). Our research shows that 54 percent of people that request our information actually visit Cayuga County, spending money on hotels, transportation, food, shopping, entertainment and other items, as well as contributing to local and state tax revenues as a result of our promotional efforts.

2005 was an especially notable year for our public relations initiatives, with the office taking part in the Society of American Travel Writers Conference in Rochester and Travel Media Showcase in Niagara Falls, as well as co-hosting the New York State Outdoor Travel Writers Association Conference in Auburn. We also saw some major hits in national magazines such as the 󈬢-Mile Yard Sale” highlight that appeared in “Country Living,” which generated hundreds of calls to the Tourism Office, for details on the sale, where to stay and other things to do.

Our group tour marketing efforts were also expanded in 2005 with the “Big Grape Tour,” our first familiarization tour-for-tour operators, attended by 34 people from 19 different companies. We teamed up with the Village of Skaneateles for this program and spent a day-and-half touring owners and operators through Skaneateles, Auburn, Aurora and King Ferry. Bookings have already come in for 2006 and plans for the “Big Grape Tour II” are well underway.

Inquiries, hotel occupancy and occupancy tax revenues were all up in 2005 following the predicted trend that the economy is coming back to 2000 levels.

The Cayuga County Office of Tourism looks forward to increasing those numbers further in 2006 by making strategic marketing decisions based on sound research and our vision for the future of tourism in Cayuga County.

The vision of the Cayuga County Office of Tourism is to be the primary catalyst for the on-going development of a dynamic, collaborative and innovative Cayuga County tourism industry which: Enhances economic development throughout the county, improves quality of life for its residents, and provides an unparalleled Finger Lakes visitor experience.

Meg Vanek is the executive director of the Cayuga County Office of Tourism