By GREGORY ZELLER //
Long Island’s top tourism bureau is lacing up its walking shoes for a new advertising campaign promoting car-free travel.
In collaboration with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, parent of the Long Island Rail Road, Hauppauge-based Discover Long Island has announced a new tourism drive promoting “walkable destinations” across the Island – easily accessible by LIRR and other mass-transit options, according to the destination-marketing group, and ideal places to visit “with gas prices continuing to surge.”
Soaring gasoline prices – the national average roared past $4.31 a gallon last week, settling closer to $4.29 as of Thursday, according to the American Automobile Association – are a gut punch to American tourism industries struggling to recover from two years of pandemic-flavored travel restrictions.
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A recent Reuters survey says gas-crunched Americans are already curtailing their other entertainment spending, with 60 percent of respondents noting expensive gas will prevent them from driving longer distances for leisure activities.
The COVID tourism crisis has been especially hard on Nassau and Suffolk. A comprehensive economic report prepared midway through the pandemic by the two counties’ industrial development agencies counted some 82,000 regional hospitality jobs lost and $61 billion in reduced Long Island economic activity – in 2020 alone.
Recovery has been slow and Discover Long Island has been creative with its efforts to help regional tourism businesses stay afloat. Earlier this month, the travel bureau completed a six-week promotion designed to attract visitors specifically from Arizona.
Now, the gas-price spike – just in time for spring break, with summer-vacation planning in full swing – is pouring sea salt in the Island’s wounds.
Enter the new car-free campaign, another Discover Long Island effort to promote Long Island’s unique attractions to a specific audience – this time, by highlighting day-trip options accessible primarily by the LIRR, a “crucial transportation artery” that’s “key to our economy and recovering tourism industry,” according to Discover Long Island President and CEO Kristen Jarnagin Reynolds.
“Thanks to the LIRR and a network of ferries filled with nostalgia, no car is needed to have a bucket-list Long Island getaway,” Reynolds said Wednesday, trumpeting the Island’s “award-winning wine country, historic waterfront downtowns and much more.”
The Long Island Rail Road – which has also suffered through the last two years, with daily ridership down between 29 percent and 62 percent (depending on the day) from pre-pandemic levels – is happy to team up with Discover Long Island on the leave-the-driving-to-us effort, according to LIRR Interim President Catherine Rinaldi.
“The LIRR is safe, reliable and ready to take you to all the many great outdoor activities, beaches, parks and wineries that Long Island has to offer,” Rinaldi said in a statement.
Specifically, the partners are promoting 10 “top picks” for what they’re calling “tire-less travel experiences,” including “city by the sea” Long Beach, Nassau’s historic Gold Coast (a “Gilded Age excursion” ideal for bicycling), Huntington Village (“a little microcosm of Manhattan”) and Port Jefferson, a “walkable village” filled with “seaside charm.”
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Also touted are Jones Beach, Freeport’s Nautical Mile, the microbreweries of downtown Riverhead, the Village of Greenport’s “adorable historic district and marina,” the “New England-style” Stony Brook Village and, of course, Fire Island, a “world-famous car-free haven,” according to the campaign.
The collaboration will include “robust promotion” of mass-transit-accessible attractions and destinations across Discover Long Island’s social media accounts, consumer newsletters, blogs and podcasts. The MTA, meanwhile, plans to cross-promote the car-free picks and work with the tourism bureau “to develop and promote Long Island getaway packages,” Discover Long Island said this week.
Reynolds noted a large increase in 2022 domestic travel bookings as evidence of a “hunger for new experiences and no-hassle travel.”
“Long Island provides ideal opportunities for both,” the CEO added. “Visitors and locals alike can seamlessly explore the many wonders and hidden gems right outside New York City that will make you feel a world away.”
