Encouraged by the new county administration”™s pro-business stance and signs of an uptick in hotel bookings after a dismal year for the industry, general managers are reviving the Westchester Hotel Association as a force for tourism and travel.
“It sort of just went into a hibernation stage,” Joseph Santore, the 31-member hotel association”™s new president and vice president and general manager at Tarrytown House Estate and Conference Center, said recently. “Kim Sinistore” ”“ director of the county”™s tourism office ”“ “had planted the seed that maybe we ought to try to revive this association.”
That revival began in 2008 under the leadership of former association president and current treasurer Gilbert Baeriswil, general manager of Castle on the Hudson in Tarrytown, Santore said. The association in 2009 adopted a charter and bylaws.
Also serving on the hotel association board are Daniel Conte, the group”™s vice president and general manager of the Westchester Marriott, and David Leftwich, association secretary and general manager of the IBM Learning Center in Armonk. ?“We thought it was important to bring the hotel groups together,” said Santore, whose Tarrytown center recently hosted about 90 Georgia utility workers called in to aid in restoring power in Westchester knocked out by the nor”™easter. “We have been very, very impacted up here in Westchester by the recession. It was really time to regroup and to make sure that county government becomes more pro-business and to make sure that travel and tourism remain viable in Westchester.”
Regarding the hotel association”™s relations with the previous administration of County Executive Andrew J. Spano, Santore said, “I don”™t think they really knew we existed and I don”™t think they really cared.”
Santore said association members have met with the county”™s new economic development director, Laurence Gottlieb, whose office has brought the county tourism office under its direction. “That makes tremendous sense,” said Santore, “because the travel and hotel industry is linked almost by an umbilical cord to the economic development arm of the county.”
According to the county tourism office, the hotel industry employed about 22,800 workers in Westchester in 2008 with a payroll of $846.67 million, down slightly from 2007. Taxable hotel sales in 2008 totaled approximately $224 million, up 3 percent from 2007. The industry brought the county direct tax revenue of $44.4 million, a nearly 3 percent drop from the previous year. The hotel industry”™s total direct economic impact on the county was more than $1.4 billion, down about 4 percent from 2007.
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Santore, though, said the industry plummeted in Westchester in 2009, which was “probably the worst” year on record. Hotel business here reached a record high in 2007, “so you see a rapid deflation,” he said. The county tourism office did not yet have 2009 figures available.
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Hotels and conference centers here did see large growth last year in weekend leisure business, Santore said. “The leisure market was a product of this new way of thinking about how you”™re going to spend your money,” he said, as families within a 50-mile radius took more multiple weekend trips in the recession. But midweek business travel by individuals and corporate bookings were far down.
Santore noted that lost business also was felt by the hotel industry”™s business partners in the county ”“ “restaurants, taxis, historical attractions, florists, audio-visual services, charter buses, recreational companies, antique stores and various other retail outlets.”
Santore said the association”™s transient-hotel members this year are reporting better business during the week with the return of business travel, which “all but disappeared as of last January, February” in 2009, he said.
At the Tarrytown House conference center, where Destination Hotels and Resorts Inc. has spent nearly $15 million to restore the historic property since acquiring it in 2005, “Lehman Brothers was our largest customer,” Santore said with a rueful smile. In the place of financial services firms, the center has hosted corporate training events by consumer products companies, manufacturers, accounting firms and pharmaceutical companies. “We”™re seeing strong future bookings and a commitment of companies to invest in their people,” with a strong uptick in bookings from April through June, he said.
In Westchester, “We”™re looking forward to the return of Wall Street,” Santore said. “There”™s been some but not much”¦We do need further strengthening in the corporate business market” to drive the county”™s overall hospitality industry. “It”™s slow, but we”™re seeing that come back.”
Santore said the hotel association would promote biking weekends on Westchester trails throughout May with bicycle rentals offered at its member hotels. A portion of proceeds will go to the Lance Armstrong Foundation.
Santore said the hotel association also would work closely with county government and the New York State Hospitality & Tourism Association to prevent a county or state hotel occupancy tax. “We”™re very much against that,” he said. “With travel still very, very tentative, we don”™t want to add any financial burden onto the customer.”
