Who benefits when visitors come to Cayuga County?

By Noah Howard

Imagine a couple arriving from Pennsylvania for a fall leaf-peeping weekend in the Finger Lakes. They check in to lodging overlooking Cayuga Lake, visit a winery after a waterfall hike, and enjoy a meal at a family-run restaurant. They tour a historic site, browse an independent shop, stop to pick apples, and fill the gas tank before heading home. They take photos, memories, and mementos with them, but they leave behind an investment: money that entered Cayuga County from beyond its borders.

The purchases benefit the businesses that receive them, but their effects do not stop at the point of sale. An eatery pays its staff and orders ingredients. An inn hires a local contractor. Employees spend a portion of their wages at nearby establishments. Visitor spending sets economic activity in motion that reaches further than the original transaction.

Tourism is sometimes viewed as a collection of pleasant diversions: a lake cruise, a museum tour, dinner with a view. Yet it is also a distinctive form of economic development. Local businesses depend on resident spending, but tourism draws customers who bring purchasing power from outside the county. In that sense, tourism works like an export industry turned inside out: instead of shipping goods to customers elsewhere, a community welcomes customers to its goods.

By the Numbers…

In 2025, this activity represented $171.2 million in visitor spending and related expenditures in Cayuga County, according to Tourism Economics, commissioned by Empire State Development/I LOVE NEW YORK. That is a 1.5 percent increase from $168.6 million in 2024, and the fourth consecutive year of growth from $131.4 million in 2021, even as Canadian visitor spending fell sharply across New York. The total included $67.8 million attributed to lodging, $39.9 million to food and beverage, and $21.1 million to retail goods and services. Recreation, transportation, and vacation properties or second homes also contributed to the total.

These figures represent businesses and workers across the county, in lakeside and inland communities. Visitors may arrive for history, wine country, outdoor recreation, or family gatherings, but their spending rarely remains confined to the attraction that brought them here. A hotel guest becomes a restaurant customer. A museum visitor may become a shopper. A family spending a weekend on the lake might discover a local market.

For residents, the effects are measurable. The 2025 analysis estimates that visitor activity supported approximately 1,600 jobs, about one in every 15 jobs in the county, and $71.9 million in personal income. It also generated an estimated $9.9 million in local tax revenue, from sources that include sales, property, and occupancy taxes. Aside from the occupancy tax, which is dedicated to tourism promotion, this revenue helps fund public services and lessens the amount that would otherwise need to come from other sources. This is not a dollar-for-dollar discount on anyone’s property tax bill, but it is a valuable contribution to the county’s shared financial responsibilities.

There are less easily measured benefits, too. A restaurant sustained partly by travelers is also available for an anniversary dinner. Museums, galleries, and festivals serve residents as well as visitors. Shopping and recreational opportunities supported by a broader customer base help make small communities more appealing places to live. The quality of a destination and the quality of life for residents often reinforce one another.

None of this means that visitors appear automatically. Travelers have choices, and a rural county like Cayuga must give them reasons to come. Working together with its Finger Lakes neighbors, Cayuga County can draw visitors who might otherwise head elsewhere in New York and beyond. Destination marketing builds that interest and helps turn it into actual trip bookings. That work includes marketing campaigns, hosting travel journalists and content creators, building media relationships, promoting local attractions and events, and introducing wider audiences to the county’s distinctive experiences.

Promotion is not solely responsible for the visitor economy. Local entrepreneurs, hospitality workers, cultural institutions, and others create the experiences people travel to enjoy. But coordinated destination promotion and management help connect those offerings with visitors who might not otherwise discover them.

Cayuga County’s occupancy tax is part of that system. Separate from property and sales taxes, it is collected on paid overnight stays in hotels and short-term rentals. It is paid by overnight guests and does not appear on residents’ tax bills. Cayuga County has been forward-thinking in reinvesting 95 percent of this revenue in tourism promotion through a contract with Tour Cayuga, the county’s designated nonprofit convention and visitors bureau, and retaining 5 percent to administer the tax. In effect, visitors help finance efforts to attract future visitors, and those trips support local businesses, jobs, and sales tax receipts.

The Work of a DMO (destination marketing organization)

The relationship between tourism and community vitality is a reinforcing cycle. A place people want to visit is also more likely to be a place people want to live. Communities that attract residents become more appealing to employers and investors, whose contributions strengthen the local economy and give visitors even more reasons to return. Tourism alone does not create prosperity, but it supports the businesses, amenities, and opportunities that help a community thrive.

Cayuga County’s history, landscapes, small businesses, and cultural institutions give people reasons to visit. Making those connections is work. The visitor economy brings new dollars into the county and supports the places, services, and opportunities residents rely on.

The visit may last a weekend, but its economic benefits reach far beyond the stay, supporting the businesses, livelihoods, and communities that make Cayuga County a place worth visiting and calling home.