According to Visit Syracuse, tourism spending in Onondaga County in 2024 exceeded $1.3 billion compared to about $700 million in 2017
By Stefan Yablonski
Visit Syracuse is kind of a misnomer. While the organization does promote Onondaga County — its sphere of influence is much wider.
Visit Syracuse was established in 1919 to promote the Greater Syracuse area as a convention and leisure destination. Known initially as the City Club of Syracuse, which merged with the Syracuse Chamber of Commerce in 1918, the organization was officially designated as the Syracuse Convention & Visitors Bureau in November 1919. In 2015, the name was shortened to Visit Syracuse, for marketing purposes.
“Early in 2017, we broke away from the chamber of commerce and became an independent nonprofit,” said Dan Liedka, president and CEO. “So Visit Syracuse has only been in existence since 2017. But, if you consider the Syracuse Convention & Visitors Bureau, then obviously much longer than that.”
They are the official tourism, promotion and film promotion agency for Onondaga County.
“We market the region to conferences, meetings, conventions, travelers, movie producers. We do have a sales wing that calls on the events and tries to attract them to Syracuse. Our film person calls producers and tries to attract movies to Syracuse,” Liedka explained. “We’ve got 14 full-time employees and about five part-time.
“Film wise it has been pretty steady. Last year, I think we did about $35 million in film production revenue for the year. This year has been a little quiet initially because they were waiting for the governor’s budget to be voted on because there is a tax incentive there. They were waiting to see if that passed. There will be a ton of folks in town getting ready to shoot some movies here. I imagine by the end of the year it will be a banner year for us.”
More than Onondaga County
“It doesn’t really just stop in our county. We have shot some television commercials in Oswego County. We have shot [movie] scenes in Madison County and Cayuga County, Cortland County,” he said. “The producer doesn’t understand where the borders are — nor do they care. They just want the assets. Like Oswego for example, we shot a Subaru commercial on the shores of Lake Ontario and made it look like the ocean.
“There are a really diverse set of assets here that are very appealing to the producers, plus the tax incentives saves them a lot of money. That is the thing that really gets their attention.
“I would say the events and the convention side is the big part of what we do. The film side we don’t take lightly; but that is really about only a two-person operation. We get involved in the logistics of some of the movies too.”
Good tourism news
“Tourism, the good news, spent here, 2023 and 2024 both set records. Tourism spending in our county exceeded $1.3 billion in 2024,” he said. “To give you perspective, back in 2017 tourism spending was around $700 million. So to be up at more than a billion shows a lot of growth — which is wonderful.
“We certainly try to hitch our wagon to Syracuse University athletics just because they draw an awful lot of people on their own. So if we can convince those people to extend their stay and do things outside of the game that is really a focus for us. That is a captive audience that we try to maximize.”
Visit Syracuse tries to promote any festival that is in town; to help with the promotion of that to increase their attendance. They have been part of the Rhythm and Blues Festival, Jazz Fest.
“Two of the big marquee events that we are involved in,” he said. “But everything, everything that Syracuse has and the county has to offer, we try to promote the heck out of it to show what a great destination we have.
“I think the ethnic festivals don’t get a ton of publicity outside the area. We try to push that. Syracuse is a very diverse city, the makeup of the people here. I think ethnic festivals resonate with folks from afar. So that is something we really hone in on. The history here is amazing. It is a story that we need to do a better job telling and we certainly will.
You think of modern democracy was founded on the shores of Onondaga Lake. You think of the Underground Railroad, women’s rights. Safe Haven Museum, for example, you certainly have a lot of very special places in Oswego County — no question about it. There is a ton of history in this area and that is something that is on the horizon for us for the future to really push that out.”
Promoting the region
“We promote the region. We are obligated to promote our county. But we go beyond the borders and try to help all the contiguous counties for sure. We are considered the gateway to the Finger Lakes. But once you get past Cayuga County that is where Rochester dominates a little bit so we stick to our region,” he explained. “The state of New York has a tourism region and an economic development region. For economic development we are in what they call the central region. That is Syracuse, Oswego, Madison, Cortland, Cayuga.
“In the tourism region we are in what hey call the Finger Lakes. So that is where we are connected to all the Finger Lakes counties. We are the eastern most county in that region. So I think we dip our toe in a pretty wide area.”
