National Travel and Tourism Week is an annual tradition for the U.S. travel community. It’s a time when travel and tourism professionals across the country unite to celebrate the value travel holds for our economy, businesses and personal wellbeing.
The Cortland County Convention & Visitor's Bureau (CVB) is leading Cortland County's travel and tourism community during this celebration. In its 37th year, NTTW continues to unite towns and cities across the country behind a common theme. The 2020 National Travel and Tourism Week will honor the "spirit of travel", recognizing the industry's strength, selflessness, and resiliency.
This year, the COVID-19 public health crisis is having a devastating impact on the U.S. travel and tourism industry, a ripple effect very much felt here in Cortland County. This year, more than ever, the travel and tourism industry must unite together, support each other and remind the country that even through the most difficult of times, the spirit of travel cannot be broken.
“The spirit of travel isn’t only found in far-off places,” said CVB Executive Director Meghan Lawton. “When residents embrace the spirit of travel by supporting local businesses and helping their neighbors, they are playing a key role in rebuilding our community. Our office has been witnessing this local embrace of the travel industry over the past six weeks and we created the Spirit of Cortland video series to both celebrate Travel & Tourism Week and recognize the spirit of our local community.”
With that in mind, the Experience Cortland team will celebrate NTTW with the Spirit of Cortland video series. The series will be released, one episode per day from May 4-8, across all Experience Cortland social media channels (@experiencecortland). Each episode focuses on a different industry segment, and features video interviews with local tourism partners, stories about how the local industry has adjusted during the pandemic, plans for the future of Cortland County tourism, and features songs from local musicians. In addition, be on the lookout during the first episode (to be released May 4) for a special Spirit of Cortland giveaway, only available to viewers of the video series.
“When the time is right the travel and tourism industry will be integral to our recovery,” continued Lawton. “Until then, it is the spirit of travel and the Spirit of Cortland which will help heal our area’s morale, during the pandemic and after the health crisis eases. We hope this video series will provide both a celebration of our local industry, and the opportunity to focus on the good.”
National Travel and Tourism Week takes place May 3-9. Follow @ExperienceCortland on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube for more information on National Travel and Tourism week activities and to watch the Spirit of Cortland video series.
The Cortland County Convention & Visitors Bureau’s purpose is to enhance the general economy of Cortland County, its cities, towns and villages, through promotion of tourist activities, conventions, trade shows, special events and other directly related and supporting activities.
The CVB office is located at 42 Main Street, Cortland, NY. While the main office is currently closed due NYS PAUSE, staff is working remotely. For more information on the Cortland County Convention & Visitors Bureau, please email info@experiencecortland.com, visit us on the web at www.experiencecortland.com.
Share your Cortland County photos and videos with us for a chance to be featured! Tag @experiencecortland and use hashtag #experiencecortland.