Thoughtful Marketing in the Hudson Valley

Tourism, the Hudson Valley and Smart Growth

  

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What’s the best way to drive local economic growth? The smart answer is “smart growth,” a winner of a term that proposes that the most prosperous communities will be ones that protect the environment, support local businesses, and provide ready (and ideally walk-able) access to amenities and services.

Here in the Hudson Valley, the debate between smart growth and, okay, stupid growth, has been going on for years. Guess which side we’re on? The same one, it happens, as Mary Kay Vrba, director of tourism for Dutchess County Tourism. An ardent and articulate advocate of smart growth, Vrba sees an important role for tourism in the Hudson Valley, both now and in the future. Start with the fact that it’s already a significant revenue generator. In 2009, according to Vrba, visitors spent $4.1B throughout the ten-county Hudson Valley region. In Dutchess County alone, they spent $438M, generating over $28M in tax revenue.

Despite the economic downturn, tourism revenues have continued to grow. From 2009 to 2010, they increased by 7%, an impressive statistic during these down economic times. The main reason: New York City denizens are vacationing locally instead of jetting off to the Caribbean or wherever. Also, says Vrba, a lot of people make a special point of taking down time when they’re financially stressed.

Tourism and stupid growth are, of course, incompatible. People do not pay for the privilege of experiencing endless highways, belching smokestacks and strip malls. Which isn’t to suggest that smart growth is anti-industry. Or Vrba, either. She proudly notes instances where people who visited the Hudson Valley as tourists ending up re-locating their businesses here. Among them: Niche Modern Lighting, whose owners moved up to Beacon from Brooklyn, taking over the old Tallix foundry and creating close to 20 local jobs in the process.

Vrba also points out that new businesses can be sited in locations that actually improve—or, at a minimum, don’t degrade—the area’s physical appeal. In Poughkeepsie, for instance, brownfield reclamation has led to riverfront locations for the restaurant Shadows on the Hudson and the Grandview, a catering facility. Another example: China’s Linuo Solar Group recent takeover of IBM’s former West Campus in East Fishkill.

As it happens, Luminary Publishing has been publishing Dutchess County Tourism’s County Travel Guide for the past three years. It’s a philosophical as well as business partnership. We’re allies against stupid growth.

Carl Frankel writes regularly for Chronogram about sustainability, local business and other matters.