How One Travel Marketer’s Joke Turned to Genius

Lake Cayuga in fall. Photo from VisitIthaca.com

You may have read or heard the story: on Sunday February 15, during a freezing upstate New York weekend, the director of the Ithaca-Tompkins County Convention and Visitors Bureau put up a message on the bureau’s website (VisitIthaca.com) reading, “That’s it. We surrender. Winter, you win. Key West, anyone?”

That’s right — director Bruce Stoff was suggesting (and jesting) that, while temperatures were hitting ten below and the incessant snows were whipping around in minus 30-degree wind chill, people should forget about visiting Ithaca and head straight to the warmth of the Florida Keys. “Please come back when things thaw out. Really, it’s for the birds here now…P.S. Send us a postcard.”

Stoff even linked to the Florida Keys Tourism Council site.

As someone living in upstate New York suffering through similar weather conditions, and also a frequent visitor… Continue reading →