Westchester County”™s new tourism director said she will bring aboard a new team to lead the county in assessing and further developing its $1.5 billion tourism industry.
Kim Sinistore was appointed by County Executive Andrew J. Spano as the director of the county Office of Tourism to replace Margo Jones, who recently retired. The director oversees an office with four full-time personnel within the county Department of Economic Development. Sinistore said the office”™s budget this year is about $700,000.
Sinistore said she is looking to partner with airlines serving the Westchester County Airport, especially JetBlue and AirTran Airways, “to outreach Westchester to new potential clients, whether it be business or leisure. I think the airlines are a good resource for that.”
A lifelong resident of Westchester, Sinistore had served as deputy director since the tourism office was created in January 2001. In that capacity, she assisted with all aspects of the office and acted as liaison to hotels and attractions. She previously was employed by the White Plains Recreation & Parks Department, the Peekskill Parks & Recreation Department and the Rye YMCA
She is a member of the Hudson Valley Tourism Association, Empire State Society of Association Executives and local chapters of Meeting Planner International and the National Business Travel Association.
Sinistore said she expects to fill her office”™s vacant posts of marketing director and deputy director within a month. “I”™m waiting to get the team on board so we can reassess as a new team and move tourism into new partnerships and new relationships and bring in new tourism to Westchester,” she said.
“I”™m looking for ways that we might want to branch out more,” she said. “We need to maintain what we have here, too. We have a good program at the moment.”
The state”™s second-largest industry, tourism has a significant economic impact in Westchester County. According to the county tourism office”™s annual report, visitors pumped $1.476 billion into the county in 2006, up 2.3 percent from 2005. Taxable hotel sales kept pace with that increase last year, totaling more than $210 million and bringing the county $4.8 million in hotel occupancy-tax revenue.
Overall, tourism directly generated more than $45 million in county sales-tax revenue, up 2.2 percent from 2005.
According to a statewide tourism impact study, Westchester County led Hudson Valley counties with nearly 60 percent of the region”™s tourism sales and accounted for nearly 46 percent of the region”™s tourism employment.
A 2006 study by the Technical Assistance Center (TAC) at SUNY Plattsburgh for the county tourism office found that tourists to Westchester are affluent, well-educated and are generally senior travelers who repeatedly visit the county to visit friends and family. TAC conservatively estimated the number of 2005 leisure-travel visitors to the county to be about 1.6 million. Of tourists surveyed, the average annual income was about $97,000.
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