The State's economic woes and a wet, dreary summer has put the squeeze on the Genesee County Chamber of Commerce's tourism promotion budget.
The state cut its "I Love New York" allocation to the chamber by 20 percent, or $15,000.
The wet summer kept some people from traveling and the local bed tax was down 9 percent, or $26,000.
That kind of drop is reminiscent of 2004, according to chamber Tourism Director Kelly Rapone. That year there were a lot of rainy days and that resulted in fewer hotel stays locally.
"The impact on the programming is that we're not really able to develop new programming or enhance the programming that we have," Rapone said. "It hurts our ability to provide additional marketing dollars to our partners"
The chamber's tourism division is responsible for helping bring people into the county for golf, or events, or sight-seeing. It puts together golf packages for individuals and groups, provides information on amenities and things to do and markets the county throughout the region.
One of the changes in market, Rapone said, is that the Chamber will reduce the radius of its marketing from about 300 to 500 miles to 200 miles.
"We're going to be looking to do more precise, targeted efforts rather than some of the broader initiatives," Rapone said.
