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Magazine Ranks Adirondacks Among Top Global Tourism Destinations

Adirondack Park sign
Pat Bradley/WAMC

An upscale travel magazine has listed the Adirondack region as a top travel location for 2019.  Those who promote the region are excited to see global recognition of the area.
Travel and Leisure Magazine has issued its top 50 places on the globe travelers should visit in 2019.  Listed alphabetically, the Adirondacks are at the top — one of eight sites chosen in the United States.

Lake Placid-based Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism President Jim McKenna says the publication has a readership of over 1 million upscale travelers and averages over a million monthly online views. “What’s good about this is that it’s not really seen as advertising. It’s seen almost independent third party credible review type of thing. So it plays a lot into really people’s image of the area and their willingness to probably go to the next step and really look at it a little more thoroughly. So the fact that the word Adirondack worked for us by the alphabet this particular list was an added bonus.”

The short description of the Adirondack region features a photo of the renovated Hotel Saranac in Saranac Lake.   Saranac Lake Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Patrick Murphy says the article helps lure a diversified tourism base to the region.  “To be able to get a global publication such as Travel and Leisure to highlight us is going to help diversify those folks who are coming here, is going to be able to help sustain a tourism industry and bring folks in that may not usually have heard of us.”

Tupper Lake Mayor Paul Maroun is thrilled that the magazine is recognizing the greater region and its amenities.  "It is an upscale magazine. Most American Express cardholders will receive that. And I think what it’s saying is that this place has been underutilized and under-advertized for many years. And when you talk about skiing, you talk about skating, you talk about boating, paddling, fishing, hunting, or just enjoying tranquility in the summer and winter the Adirondacks have it all. I think it’s great for the economics of not only the tri-lakes but the North Country.”

McKenna expects a longer follow-up article to appear in Travel and Leisure.  “To be on that list and to really identify some real attributes of the area plays well and then it’s going to be followed up in their March edition with an additional 3 pages by the same people that were involved in compiling this list. So I think this will have some ongoing effect.  We know from our travel research that people reading interviews by travel writers is an indicator that they’re looking at the area and sometimes converts right into a direct sale.”

The other U.S. sites on the Travel and Leisure list are the Florida Keys, the state of Georgia, the Grand Canyon, Hudson Yards in New York City, Houston, Puerto Rico and Montecito, California.

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