Even as supervisors consider handing tourism efforts off to someone else, the Chamber’s interim tourism coordinator Ron Ketelsen is off and running.
Mr. Ketelsen is president of the Sharon Springs Chamber of Commerce and has served on the county Chamber’s Tourism Board for four years and the Occupancy Tax Board for three.
He owns and is restoring the historic Roseboro Hotel in Sharon Springs, where he also runs Miss Lodema’s Tea Room and has event space.
With tourism duties up in the air, Chamber officials decided not to fill the vacant coordinator’s position—yet—instead hiring Mr. Ketelsen for the job in the interim.
Mr. Ketelsen said he’s been handling a lot of the job’s day-to-day duties---among them required I Love NY paperwork.
But in just his first couple of weeks he’s also been working with travel companies and Amtrak to put together itineraries and packages for downstate and New York City tourists interested in the attractions here.
One hitch in the downstate-upstate tourism strategy has long been getting people into and around Schoharie and Otsego Counties once they arrive at someplace like the Albany train station.
Mr. Ketelsen said he’s already found a way around that: Using the county’s Public Transportation busses already heading into the Capital District.
It’s not a perfect solution, he said, and can’t take the place of charter busses, but it’s enough of a fill-in-the-gap measure that it has Amtrak working with him on a pilot NYC project that could eventually be expanded to places like Boston and Washington, DC.
“That was a big take-away from the Chamber’s Tourism Summit,” he said. “The need to figure out a way to move people around once they’re here.”
Along the same lines, Mr. Ketelsen is working with Amtrak on ways to bring visitors in for specific events like Sharon’s Harvest Festival—again using the county busses for transportation.
He’s also working with Amtrak to develop ways to sell online custom travel packages.
“It’s a lot of phone calls, coordination, persistence, and connecting the dots,” he said. “You really have to stay on their radar to see results. You have to be a conduit.”
Another challenge the county faces, Mr. Ketelsen said, is the lack of a large hotel or conference space.
Though some have suggested Airbnb as a possible lodging solution—and it is—Mr. Ketelsen said not everyone wants to stay in a B&B and large tour groups don’t want to have to drop guests at multiple stops.
“We’ve got some challenges, but we have a lot to offer,” he said.