Cayuga County Celebrates National Travel and Tourism Week
Noah Howard, PR Manager for Tour Cayuga
First appeared in The Citizen Newspaper in May 2026
Each May, communities across the country pause to recognize National Travel and Tourism Week, an annual observance that highlights the essential role travel plays in strengthening local, state and national economies. This year, National Travel and Tourism Week was observed May 3rd through 9th, and here in Cayuga County, it offered a timely opportunity to reflect on a message we believe is important all year long: tourism is economic development, and its benefits reach far beyond visitors.
When people think about tourism, they often picture vacationers, road trips, restaurants, hotel stays, museums, wineries, lakeside views, historic sites and weekend getaways. All of those are part of the story, but they are not the whole story. Tourism is also about jobs, small businesses, tax revenue, downtown activity, community pride and long-term quality of life. When visitors come to Cayuga County, they support the places that make our communities stronger for everyone who lives here.
Visitor spending provides roughly $600 in annual tax relief to every household in Cayuga County. That is one of the clearest ways to understand why tourism matters locally. A strong visitor economy helps sustain public services, supports local employment and brings outside dollars into our communities. In other words, tourism is not separate from everyday life in Cayuga County. It is one of the forces that helps support it.
The theme of this year’s National Travel and Tourism Week, “Postmarked: Essential,” speaks to the way travel leaves a lasting mark on communities. Here in Cayuga County, that mark is visible in many forms. It can be seen in the visitors who come to Auburn to learn about Harriet Tubman, William H. Seward, Theodore Case, and the region’s nationally significant equal rights history. It can be seen in families exploring our parks, lakes and trails. It can be seen in guests discovering local farms, wineries, breweries, restaurants, bakeries and small businesses. It can also be seen in the pride residents feel when the places they know and love are recognized by people from outside the area.
That pride of place is one of tourism’s most important, and sometimes least understood, benefits. Tourism helps communities tell their own story. It brings together history, culture, food, recreation, entrepreneurship and hospitality into one larger picture of who we are. For Cayuga County, that story includes nationally significant heritage, rural landscapes, creative small businesses, agricultural traditions, water-based recreation and a growing network of partners working together to strengthen the visitor experience.
This idea is at the heart of our Tourism Advocacy video series, which is available on the Tour Cayuga website. The series features local leaders, business owners and regional partners sharing, in their own words, why tourism matters. Their messages reflect many of the themes we return to often: tourism supports small businesses, strengthens collaboration, encourages residents to see the value of their own communities and helps connect Cayuga County’s many assets into a shared story.
One of the strongest messages from this advocacy work is that tourism works best when it is understood as a community-wide effort. A visitor’s experience is shaped not only by museums, hotels, restaurants and attractions, but also by the people they meet along the way. A friendly conversation at a shop, a recommendation from a resident or a welcoming experience at a local event can help shape how someone remembers Cayuga County. Residents, businesses, community organizations and local government all play a role in creating the sense of place that visitors carry home with them.
That same spirit of collaboration will be reflected next month at the annual Where Tourism Meets Community Summit, held Wednesday, June 17, from 11am to 2pm at the Emerson Park Pavilion. The summit brings together tourism partners, local businesses, elected officials, community organizations, hospitality professionals and other stakeholders for an afternoon focused on connection, recognition and shared purpose.
This year’s summit will include partner networking, our annual tourism awards and speaker presentations. Bob Provost, President and CEO of the New York State Tourism Industry Association, will serve as a presenting speaker. NYSTIA is a statewide, member-driven organization focused on tourism marketing, destination stewardship and long-term strategic thinking, and Provost’s leadership reflects the broader statewide conversation about tourism as a driver of economic growth, community vitality and quality of life.
For us, the summit is more than an annual gathering. It is a reminder that tourism depends on relationships. It depends on partners who open their doors to visitors, businesses that invest in their communities, public officials who understand tourism’s economic role and residents who recognize the value of welcoming people to the place we call home.
These figures tell a local story that extends well beyond a single week of recognition. Tourism supports the restaurants, shops, attractions, farms, lodging properties, cultural sites and hospitality workers that help define our communities. It generates revenue, sustains jobs, strengthens local businesses and gives residents new reasons to take pride in the place they call home. Each visit contributes to a larger local story, one rooted in history, community character and the shared effort to keep Cayuga County a strong and welcoming destination.
In Cayuga County, tourism means business. It also means community. And when we invest in tourism thoughtfully, the benefits are shared by all of us.