When it comes to tourism in the Hudson Valley, Westchester County is the bellwether.
So says a new survey commissioned by the state and prepared by Tourism Economics, a company that analyzes 2009 data statewide with an emphasis on the Hudson Valley.
According to “The Economic Impact of Tourism in New York State,” Westchester accounts for more than half of visitor spending in the region. Tourism had a $1.4 billion effect on the county, generating direct county tax revenue of $90.1 million and taxable hotel sales of $285 million, said Kim Sinistore, director, Westchester County Tourism & Film.
The primary reason for all this, she said, is business. Westchester still has Fortune 500 companies as well as lots of small and mid-size businesses, which in turn make use of hotels and recreational sites.
But Westchester attracts its share of non-business tourists, too, she said: “We”™re known for our mansions, castles and estates.”
Places like Lyndhurst, the Gothic Revival manse in Tarrytown that once belonged to railroad tycoon Jay Gould, or Kykuit, the Rockefeller family home in Pocantico Hills.
Kykuit”™s sunken Inner Garden ”“ rills of water ringed with robust nymphs as imagined by the likes of Gaston Lachaise and Elie Nadelman ”“ and The Donald M. Kendall Sculpture Gardens at PepsiCo in Purchase, roughly 100 modern and contemporary works gracing a public park, are just two of the county”™s horticultural hot spots.
“We get a lot of requests for our gardens brochure,” Sinistore said.
Overall, tourism in the Hudson Valley is a $2.7 billion industry, supporting 48,337 jobs. Throughout the state, visitors spent $45.8 billion in 2009, sustaining 660,915 jobs.
The bulk of those tourists (80 percent) went to New York City, Long Island and the Hudson Valley, although Sinistore added “Niagara (Falls), Buffalo and Rochester do well. There”™s more to New York state than New York City.”
In 2009, tourism generated $12.6 billion in taxes in the state, with slightly less than half of that going to state and local governments.
Sinistore thinks there are more dollars to be had for state and county coffers.
“The (tourism) picture is improving,” she said. “We”™re starting to see an increase. But it”™s small, a reflection of the economy itself.”
