Long Island hospitality businesses and tourism groups push for year-round visitors

On the heels of news that Long Island saw record high tourist spending last year, East End business owners and a tourism marketing organization aim to grow foot traffic into the off months.

Discover Long Island, the region’s largest tourism promotion agency, launched a new marketing effort to bring in tourists year-round by turning the day after Labor Day — informally referred to as Tumbleweed Tuesday in East End communities — into Tourism Tuesday.

Last year, tourism spending hit a record high $7.5 billion on Long Island — buoyed in part by the higher cost of goods and services — up 12.7% from 2022, according to figures released last week by the state.

In total, the Island saw an estimated 41.8 million tourists in 2023, according to a recent report by Longwoods International, a market research firm based in Columbus, Ohio. Of those, over half — 23.1 million — were day-trippers, while 18.7 million were overnight visitors.

"We’re here today to let people know if you love the businesses in your community and you want to support them and make sure they’re not trying to survive in a feast-or-famine economy, we really do need to welcome visitors year-round," said Kristen Reynolds, president and chief executive of Discover Long Island.

Reynolds, who addressed a small crowd of local hospitality business owners at the Southampton Inn on Tuesday morning, said shoulder seasons like fall and winter already had a lot of success in attracting visitors.

"Shoulder seasons, particularly fall, have now become peak season," Reynolds said.

Her organization, using $300,000 in additional Suffolk County funding secured from a portion of hotel and motel taxes, plans to enhance advertising this fall and winter for East End businesses.

Planned marketing efforts include capitalizing on New York City’s peak holiday season — which sees over 6 million global visitors from Thanksgiving through New Year’s Eve — by using digital billboards in Times Square, taxi-top advertisements, and ads in Broadway and Lincoln Center playbills.

The tourism promotion agency also will use "geo-fencing" around populous New York City destinations to target visitors with ads touting Long Island’s fall and winter offerings on their mobile devices.

Expand foot traffic

Tora Matsuoka, principal at Seasoned Hospitality and owner of the Sen Restaurant in Sag Harbor, said expanding visitor foot traffic beyond the summer months was imperative for businesses and the East End’s economy overall.

"When Sen opened in 1994, Labor Day Tuesday was true Tumbleweed Tuesday," Matsuoka said. "Business had a very hard time surviving. We came very close to not opening again during that period of time."

That has changed over time with increased interest in fall excursions, Matsuoka said, but that the peak tourist season has shifted.

"The reality is we’re not seeing that pop in business until mid-June when the kids get out of school," he said. "Before, it used to be around Memorial Day. It’s the same 90 days, it’s just shifted up a little bit.

"What we’re trying to do here is expand it into the fall and winter," he said. "No real business or community can survive on 90 days of income. It’s not sustainable."

Dede Gotthelf, longtime owner of the Southampton Inn, said the need to attract visitors in the fall and winter months was a must for the local business community.

“ … it’s the same weather, the same beaches, the same swimming pool, the same tennis court, the same restaurants, the same retail shops, but the rates plunge by more than 50%," she said.

Competition from tourist destinations throughout the Northeast means a targeted marketing effort needs to draw focus to communities like Southampton, Gotthelf said.

"We’re actually in a position of needing as much occupancy at half the rate or less to be able to enjoy the business of the autumn season," Gotthelf said.