The people who run the Hudson Valley tourist sites and the people in the county tourism offices who direct visitors to them are unanimous.
The summer will be busy, many will hit the road.
These travel professionals say they are confident of this, despite gas prices currently in excess of $5 a gallon and the economy hit by some of the worst inflation in 40 years.
“Our phone is ringing,” Mike Fisher said from Old Rhinebeck Airfield, where the airshow season began June 18 and runs until October 16. “We are very optimistic.”
At Legoland New York in Goshen, Matt Besterman offered a similarly rosy outlook.
“The season has been great since we opened in April,” said Besterman, the site’s public relations manager.
There have already been a few days in Legoland when the park was overcrowded and could no longer receive guests.
They come from quite large distances: from all over the northeast and even from Virginia and Maryland. This will be Legoland’s first full season since its phased reopening last year.
Legoland was also able to staff the approximately 1,500 posts needed to serve these visitors. Locally they are known as “model citizens”.
Besterman said they still have about 200 positions to fill and hope to do so at a few recruiting events.
More:Your 2021 Guide to Parks, Fun & Live Music in the Lower Hudson Valley
For those planning to travel to places like Legoland this summer, Robert Sinclair Jr., senior public relations manager for AAA Northeast, said there could be some relief at the gas station soon.
When the price of crude oil hit $120 a barrel, that was the moment when retail gas prices across the country began to break records.
On June 16, Sinclair said that the price of crude oil had fallen below $120 a barrel, and gas prices should fall in response.
“But prices tend to rise like a rocket and fall like a feather, so you can get some short-term relief, but it might take a while,” Sinclair said.
Lucy Redzeposki, director of economic development and tourism for Rockland County, said the county benefits from its proximity to New York City.
And as she noted, Rockland County has capped its share of gasoline sales tax at $2 a gallon and expects many drivers to go there from the city, or maybe even bike.
About a third of Rockland County is parkland, so a lot of people go there.
Stony Point alone has the Penguin Theater for entertainment, a Revolutionary War battlefield for history buffs, and a lighthouse among its tourist attractions.
The four-story Palisades Center is not your typical mall and is popular with tourists for its attractions, including indoor golf. And Bear Mountain in the northern part of the county offers family fun from swimming and fishing to the zoo.
“We are expecting a lot of people who have saved up money that they didn’t spend during the pandemic,” Redzeposki said. “We’re ready for…
