Adina Genn//March 18, 2025//
Courtesy of Discover Long Island
Leaders talk tourism growth
Courtesy of Discover Long Island
Adina Genn//March 18, 2025//
Long Island is scoring record tourism dollars, and the trend is expected to swing upward as the region attracts new visitors.
That’s according to Discover Long Island (DLI), which markets the region. At DLI’s legislative breakfast at Melville-based Hilton Long Island, leaders touted upcoming high-profile events. They spotlighted their marketing campaigns and efforts to highlight small local businesses. And there was talk about rebranding SUNY (State University of New York), and getting into one of the major athletic conferences, helping to attract tourism dollars.
As Discover Long Island President and CEO Kristen Reynolds put it: “Tourism drives revenue, and it drives revenue for the residents.”
Long Island tourism-spending hit $7.5 billion, according to Tourism Economics, bringing in $900 million in local and state tax revenue, as reported in October 2024. Visitors increased their spending by 12.7 percent year over year, and tourism generated 76,227 jobs.
Now, “2025 is already proving to be a monumental year, and there is so much on the horizon,” said Mitch Pally, who chairs DLI’s Board of Directors.
A significant focus this year is the 2025 Ryder Cup, the golf tournament coming to the famed Bethpage Black.
The event is expected to bring in 250,000 visitors to Long Island, and “at least $150 million in overall economic impact,” Pally said. “This scale of event is unprecedented to Long Island and yet DLI has been hard at work to make each visitor’s experience in the region unforgettable.” DLI has launched a microsite, an app, a golf commercial and a marketing strategy all around the Ryder Cup.
In addition, “the 100th anniversary of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s iconic novel, ‘The Great Gatsby,’ is putting a well-deserved international spotlight on our historic Gold Coast region, as it was the author’s home and inspiration for the novel’s setting while he was creating the story,” Pally said.
Other upcoming high-profile events include the NHL All-Star Game, the U.S. Open at Shinnecock and the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution on Long Island.
“Each of these events will further solidify Long Island’s reputation as a premier destination for visitors from around the world,” Pally said.
DLI’s legislative breakfast focused mostly on Suffolk County, as the organization is no longer contracted by Nassau County, Pally said.
In 2024, Nassau retained Glen Head-based RRDA as its official tourism marketing organization. Since then, RRDA has promoted such events as the Cricket World Cup last summer, which garnered national and international attention. Now, RRDA is gearing up for the National BBQ Festival in Eisenhower Park, which features a $100,000 purse. The event is expected to draw more than 20,000 attendees, pitmasters, celebrity judges and more from the region and nationwide.
Pally said that this year DLI’s challenges – including “contractual and financing issues” – have “slowed down our marketing efforts.” Still, he said the organization was “hopeful” that Suffolk County would “continue to include a much-needed convention center” in its new plans for Ronkonkoma.
The county, he said, “continues to lose the ability to host many conventions and conferences because of the lack of facilities to host, and we all know that out-of-county visitors and convention-goers spend four times the amount of fund as our residents do, thus significantly increase in the tax revenues collected by the county.”
To that point, Reynolds said that with the Ryder Cup, 12,000 rooms are booked. But she said, “250,000 people are coming. Do you know where they are staying? They’re in New York City, because we don’t have hotels. We are losing all that revenue. But the Long Island Rail Road is going to do robust business.” Visitors, she said “are coming, but they’re staying elsewhere and spending their money elsewhere.”
At the meeting, state Assemblyman Michael Fitzpatrick of Smithtown spoke of his talks with state officials about rebranding the state university system.
He talked of “dropping the old SUNY acronym,” which, he said, “is stale,” and changing it to the ‘University of New York,” or UNY – similar to UVA (University of Virginia) or UNC (University of North Carolina).
“We have a great state university, but we are not a national brand,” he said. In conversations with leaders in academia, business and labor as well as alumni, he is trying to grow support for “not just rebranding,” but “creating that national brand to attract the best students to Long Island.”
With a UNY rebrand, Fitzpatrick said, a goal could be set within 10 years “to establish the University of New York sports program as a major player and get it into one of the major athletic conferences.”
While that might require a new or expanded stadium, Fitzpatrick framed a revamped sports program as a “major revenue driver.” Think of the opportunity, he said, for “tourism and hospitality.”
New campaigns about the region included marketing at airports in Florida from which JetBlue is offering nonstop flights to Long Island MacArthur Airport, and at spring training stadiums where the New York Yankees and New York Mets play. DLI also had its first Super Bowl commercial this year.
To promote local organizations and individuals, DLI introduced six new videos to its You Belong series. The series features Adventureland, Arbor View House Bed and Breakfast, Fire Island Ferries, artist John Melillo, Huntington Lighthouse and Little Ram Oysters.
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