A summer to survive
Predicting the 2020 Adirondack Park tourism season’s crucial cash infusion is like trying to read a crystal ball. It's a murky crystal ball, at that.
The variables include the success of a state-mandated, four-phase reopening of the economy. If that goes well, there’s still the question of whether visitors will actually travel and stay in the park.
The numbers in the tourism hub of Essex County—home to Lake Placid—show why many are worried. Based on occupancy tax collections, 70% of business income flows there during the half of the year from May through October, according to the Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism (ROOST).
Around the park, the early-season indicators have been grim.
“When the pandemic hit, not one email, not one phone call,” said Julie Meeks, who manages Nelson’s Cottages in the Town of Inlet, on Fourth Lake. “No new business came in at all until the beginning of May.”
Many families make yearly visits to the 12-cottage mini-resort that her parents have owned
