Essex County Tourism

Despite the wealth of vistas and experiences to share with visitors, much of Essex County does not have a serious economic contribution from tourism. 

The bright spot is that Lake Placid with its colorful Olympic history and facilities, has become a Mecca for those wishing to physically test themselves against others and the clock.  Lake Placid has artfully augmented its Olympic reputation with a collection of events that keep strong demand for its tourism products much of the year.

The success of Lake Placid has not pushed itself outward into much of the rest of Essex County.  Nearby Wilmington (which is home to Whiteface Mountain Ski Area, one of the Olympic venues) has little success in tourism.  Schroon was once a famed honeymoon resort on the scenic edge of the lake, but its tourism offerings have seen better days and its crowds have grown thin.  Ticonderoga, on that important waterway between Lake George and Lake Champlain, has Fort Ticonderoga on the outskirts of town, but is struggling in tourism.  The Moriah region is wealthy in Lake Champlain vistas and experiences and has an amazing mining history, but tourism doesn’t play a significant role in creating jobs or feeding the local economy.

Essex County has a wealth of potential in tourism, some management issues it must face, some infrastructure investment/development challenges, and some marketing choices it can make.  Citizens are looking to tourism to provide economic opportunities, but have some concerns about tourism’s impacts on their quality of life.  They see tourism development in the past as largely unplanned and don’t necessarily assume that communities and businesses can partner to build a future that meets the needs of both.

This is a situation where a careful planning process can bring communities and businesses together to outline a future in which tourism is engineered to be successful economically while contributing to community goals, where the impacts are managed to mutually recognized standards, and where the community understands its economic and social relationship with visitors.

This project is designed to build specific plans for five key destinations within Essex County:

1. North Elba
2. Wilmington
3. Schroon
4. Ticonderoga
5. Moriah

Each of those Essex County communities has its own unique set of community goals, needs, concerns, and tourism opportunities.  The experiences they offer match up best with various visitor profiles and the steps each needs to take to move toward success (on their own terms) vary by the circumstances unique to the community.  Each needs to have tourism engineered to circumstances and opportunities specific to the community.

Those five plans will be woven into an Essex County Destination Master Plan that integrates the specific needs, actions, and engineering in a comprehensive manner to ensure that:

1. each local destination makes its moves in a supportive environment, and
2. successes multiply beyond the boundaries of local communities.