TCNN Member Focus: Tioga County Tourism

Tioga County Tourism, located in Owego, is the office of promotion and marketing for events, attractions, and businesses that have the potential to bring visitors from outside of the county. They also work on product development projects that will increase the number and quality of things to do and places to visit in Tioga County. 

Tioga County Tourism is staffed by Rebecca Maffei, director; and Loreen Maley, assistant director. Their current office is located at 80 North Ave. in Owego, but later this year they will move to the Gateway Building on Front Street in Owego to open a Visitors Center. 

“We are excited that we will be able to increase our ability to serve visitors by having a space to interact with them one-on-one and tell them all the fun things to do around the county, the region, and the state,” said Maffei. 

Tioga County is part of the Finger Lakes region and is considered by many to be the “Gateway to the Finger Lakes”. Tioga County Tourism supports events by helping promote them through their website’s event calendar, the annual calendar of events brochure, and by adding them to regional and state websites. 

They create other informational materials such as the Tioga County Travel Guide and the Tioga Antiques Trail brochure, and distribute them at visitor centers, attractions, and AAA offices in New York State, Pennsylvania and other locations in the Northeast, South and Midwest. 

Tioga County Tourism also purchases print and digital advertising to promote the county as a whole through their website, http://experiencetioga.com.

“We are lucky in this area that we have effective local media outlets to help them get the word out to people in the region,” said Maffei.

She added, “But for many of our small tourism businesses, advertising to metropolitan markets is not affordable. We partner with Finger Lakes organizations to purchase advertising and work with Public Relations firms to drive traffic to our website where we list all of our tourism partners and events.” 

Tioga County Tourism is not membership based. As long as your business is in the tourism industry, you can be included in certain publications and promotions. 

“I encourage anyone who has a tourism business or events to get in touch with our office if you haven’t already, said Maley, adding, “Your business or organization is part of the story of Tioga County and we want to help you tell it.” 

Tioga County Tourism can be reached at (607) 687-7440, or you can email to info@experiencetioga.com.

The Tioga County Non-Profit Network (TCNN) is a grassroots effort to bring together leaders from non-profit organizations to address common interests and to better serve the people of Tioga County. TCNN typically meets every other month on the fourth Wednesday from noon to 1:30 p.m. 

For more information, visit http://tioga.cce.cornell.edu or contact Andy Fagan, CCE Tioga executive director at (607) 687-4020 or email to agf1@cornell.edu.