Chamber briefs board: repeat visitors surge, website traffic tops 100,000 as tourism push shifts to drive markets

Jeff Shipley and Sam Masline of the Seneca County Chamber of Commerce delivered the tourism promotion agency’s quarterly report to the Seneca County Board of Supervisors on June 10, focusing on recent visitation trends, marketing performance and several new initiatives to boost overnight stays.

Shipley said overall overnight visitation through May 2025 is down slightly compared with 2024, but the county’s in‑state repeat‑visitor rate has risen markedly: "Our repeat traffic is 54.7 measured through the first 5 months of 2025," he told the board, compared with 39.1 percent for the same period in 2024. He attributed the increase to a strategic shift in advertising toward nearer “drive markets” and to encouraging repeat visitation.

The chamber reported that discoverseneca.com exceeded 100,000 pageviews in April — the earliest in the year that milestone has been reached in the TPA’s records — and that digital advertising campaigns are producing cost‑per‑clicks generally in the $0.35–$0.46 range. Shipley said the chamber maintains a newsletter list of more than 25,000 opted‑in addresses and is planning a conversion study (in partnership with a university) to measure visitor spending and other outcomes from email campaigns; the larger conversion study was postponed until more data are collected through December 2025.

On visitor geography and attractions, Shipley presented cell‑phone geofence data showing Syracuse, Rochester and Buffalo as the top in‑state origin markets and listed the five most visited locales (January–May 2025) as Cayuga‑Seneca Canal, Del Lago Casino, Waterloo Premium Outlets, the Canal Trail, and Sampson State Park. The chamber reported the Canal Trail is typically among the county’s top five visitor destinations and that average time on the trail is about 2.5 hours.

Shipley outlined initiatives the chamber has advanced this quarter:

- Accessibility mapping with Wheel the World: the chamber is subsidizing mapping for 23 properties (about $1,000 per property) so those properties appear on Wheel the World’s accessibility travel platform and related state and regional listings.

- Erie Canal 200 and "Treasures Along the Erie Canal" app: programming and an app populated with Seneca County assets are in production for the canal’s bicentennial events.

- Haunted‑history programming and a planned haunted history trail and related collateral pieces.

- Video and public‑relations activity, including partnerships with I Love New York and travel writer visits (example program: Brave Women FLX), and a regional outdoors campaign launching June 25 at the Finger Lakes Welcome Center. Shipley said the outdoor campaign is a multi‑county initiative that produced six videos to market the Finger Lakes region.

Shipley called out several upcoming and recurring events the chamber will support, including Cycle the Erie (scheduled to bring roughly 800 riders through the area in mid‑July), a regional outdoor campaign kickoff on June 25, and a chamber business after‑hours event at the Finger Lakes Regional Airport on June 18.

Board members asked about data and measurement. A supervisor asked whether campgrounds were included in overnight visitation statistics; Shipley said the overnight metric did not capture campground stays in the same way as tracked hotel/motel stays. On asking whether the chamber can do conversion studies tying ad spend to visitor spending, Shipley said a full conversion study requires more budget and data collection; the chamber will conduct one for its email newsletter campaign beginning in December 2025.

Shipley and Masline offered printed maps and visitor collateral to board members and invited supervisors to the June 25 regional campaign event. The presentation closed after approximately an hour and a half of discussion and questions from supervisors.