Capital Region boasts desirable destinations

Holiday destinations surround the Capital Region, bringing visitors and priming local economies.

Summer, with festivals, sports and cultural activities, is typically the busiest time.

And this year could be particularly busy.

A half dozen retired major league players will be inducted July 29 into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, representing teams from the Northeast and Atlanta to the West Coast.

Saratoga Race Course could see a Triple Crown winner if Justify is able to win the Belmont Stakes on June 9. Even if the thoroughbred doesn't appear, the New York Racing Association will debut The Stretch, its new premium seating area at the north end of the historic grandstand.

Tanglewood and the Boston Symphony will celebrate the centennial of conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein's birth with special events throughout the summer. Roger Daltrey of the Who, meanwhile, will open the 2018 season June 15, performing the Who's rock opera "Tommy" with the Boston Pops.

Actor and comedian Kevin Hart launched the 52nd season at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center on Friday night. Performances by artists ranging from the New York City Ballet and Philadelphia Orchestra to the National Ballet of Cuba and REO Speedwagon are also on the calendar. SPAC also plans several Bernstein-themed events.

Summer venues create thousands of jobs for area residents. In the Capital Region, which includes Albany, Saratoga, Schenectady, Schoharie and Rensselaer counties, hospitality and tourism jobs peaked at 43,900 last August, compared to 37,500 the previous January. With venues like Six Flags Great Escape theme park in Queensbury hiring 1,500 workers for the summer, unemployment rates typically fall sharply.

In the Glens Falls metro area, which includes Queensbury and Lake George, the number of hospitality and tourism jobs in summer is nearly double those during the slowest periods of the year.

An economic impact study by Philadelphia-based Tourism Economics completed last year calculated that the state's unemployment rate would have jumped to 13.2 percent without the jobs dependent on tourism. At the time, the unemployment rate was 4.8 percent.

The Capital Region has seen a surge in the construction of new hotels, many of them catering to leisure travelers.

Some of the greatest activity has been along the Northway between Albany and Warren County. Other construction has taken place in Schenectady with the arrival of the Rivers Casino Resort.

"We have 9,000 rooms and 5,000 campsites" available in the Lake George region, said Gina Mintzer, executive director of the Lake George Regional Chamber of Commerce. But with an aggressive marketing effort, "our early data shows it could be a very strong summer season."

Travel packages for the National Baseball Hall of Fame include stays in Albany County hotels, mostly in the Wolf Road area, said Michele Vennard, president and CEO of the Albany County Convention and Visitors Bureau. She expects demand to equal 1,800 to 2,000 room nights.

Albany International Airport expects plenty of autograph seekers as Hall of Famers make their way through the terminal.

Hall of Fame spokesman Jon Shestakofsky said the town of 1,800 people will welcome thousands of fans for the induction ceremony July 29.

Typically the Hall of Fame inducts fewer than six players at a time. And this year is the first time since 1955 that all six inductees are living. That 1955 group, by the way, included Joe DiMaggio.

The Hudson River School of Painters is also the subject of several exhibitions this summer, and the Albany County Convention and Visitors Bureau is offering a "Painters Package" with tickets to the Albany Institute of History and Art, overnight accommodations at The Morgan State House, and other incentives.

The featured exhibition is The Hudson River School: Landscape Paintings from the Albany Institute.

While plans to bring so-called duck tours to Albany have been canceled, food tours of Albany's restaurants are being offered. Taste of Troy Food Tours is offering walking tours of Albany and Troy, visiting several restaurants to sample the foods, while mixing in history and architecture. Details: tasteoftroyfoodtours.com

The weather doesn't always cooperate, but the region has a number of museums for rainy days, including the Farmers' Museum in Cooperstown, the Albany Institute of History and Art, the Hyde Collection in Glens Falls, the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Mass., The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in North Adams, the Bennington Museum in Vermont, and the Norman Rockwell Museum in Lenox, Mass.

In New York state, tourists spent nearly $65 billion in 2016, according to the 2017 Tourism Economics study, the most recent figure available. That was up 2.7 percent from 2015, with only spending by visitors from Canada showing a decline, likely because of the weakening Canadian currency.

Mintzer said Canadian visitors to Lake George were shortening their stays and spending less on average per night, even as overall demand from domestic and other international travelers was up.

Meanwhile, lower fuel prices in previous years gave tourists more money to spend on other things, mainly meals, according to the tourism study.

But with gasoline prices once again on the rise, that trend is likely to reverse.

eanderson@timesunion.com • 518-454-5323