I recently came upon “We Go Otsego” — a relatively new website of Destination Marketing. It is geared toward year-round residents looking to explore Otsego County’s adventures and activities, compared to its more traditional tourist-centric “This is Cooperstown” site.
Not even being close to the age of the target audience, I called Cassandra Harrington, executive director of Destination Marketing, to ask her the meaning of “No FOMO, just YOLO”. Turns out that it means, “No Fear Of Missing Out” and “You Only Live Once.”
The site has a colorful and energetic feel. It provides a wealth of information on all that is available to do and experience in our county, including what she describes as “the county’s most comprehensive event calendar.” Harrington agreed to meet with me in her second-floor office overlooking beautiful downtown Cooperstown.
She describes herself as a workaholic — discovering, experiencing and promoting the many treasures to be found in our hills. When not working, she can be found hiking, doing yoga in the wilderness, kayaking and even enjoying pizza at Tino’s in Oneonta.
DM is a not-for-profit tourism promotion agency funded by a portion of the occupancy tax revenue collected by the county along with a matching grant from the state Division of Tourism. DM has a similar contract with Schoharie County.
Harrington left the position of executive director for the Cayuga Wine Trail in 2017 to come to Destination Marketing in Cooperstown. While DM’s mission is to encourage tourism, she also likes to focus on the importance of providing a richer quality of life for those who live here while lowering property taxes through increased sales tax and occupancy tax revenues.
Harrington describes Otsego County tourism as having recovered from COVID and surpassed pre-COVID numbers. The uptick, she explained, is not being equally felt by all. With the costs of restaurants and lodging increasing, the activity businesses are finding less money available for them. As she pointed out — it is, after all, not hard to enjoy the beauty of Otsego County without blowing up your travel budget.
I asked her what she would say to those residents who experience the negative side of tourism as the explosion in short-term rentals has produced a shortage of housing for our middle- and lower-income families. Finding affordable housing for many has clearly become a problem.
“I am incredibly sympathetic to that,” Harrington replied, “Working with the New York State Hospitality and Tourism Association, we have successfully advocated for New York state to regulate the short-term-housing industry.”
If signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul, short-term landlords would be required to register, pay sales and occupancy tax and meet safety regulations.
In addition, Harrington is working with local towns to educate and assist them in establishing zoning regulations that both support local housing development and consider some restrictions on short-term-rentals. She pointed out that DM does not market the baseball camps, as she has found that camp families spend most of their time and money with their student-athletes at the camps.
While tourism, no doubt, plays a significant role in our economy, perhaps a more important goal is to attract new permanent residents to Otsego County. Our most recent census shows a continuing decline in in our county population. Knowing that DM’s mission is centered on tourism, I was surprised and pleased to learn of the focus they are putting on attracting permanent residents.
One of our greatest local assets is clean fresh water — particularly during this time of climate change. Harrington explained that DM is partnering with the Otsego Lake Association, Otsego 2000, the SUNY Biological Field Station and the Catskill Regional Invasive Species Partnership to help get the word out, at no cost, on the importance of both water safety and water quality protection.
Harrington told me that she has been working with Dr. Alex Thomas of SUNY Oneonta to learn more about what might help attract our graduating college students to remain in Otsego County — particularly with increasing opportunities to work from home. She is even talking about offering free charter bus services to provide county tours to college students so that they could become better acquainted with all we have to offer.
Ultimately, Harrington says she does believe that “today’s visitor is tomorrow’s talent” and that “it all starts with a visit,” which she says includes visits by family and friends to those who live here now. I am not the one to question this as my move to Otsego County, in 1975, was precipitated by a visit to a friend who had just moved here. I thought it would be a beautiful place to spend a few years. That few years is about to turn into fifty and I have no regrets.