Sullivan County Tourism Agency Pitches Digital Overhaul to Draw Visitors From Farther Away

The Sullivan County Visitors Association is making a case to county lawmakers that the key to boosting the local economy lies in reaching a different kind of tourist — one flying in from St. Louis or Milwaukee, not just driving up from New York City.

At a Sullivan County Legislature meeting last Thursday, SCVA Executive Director Michael Martellon laid out an ambitious vision for transforming how the agency markets the Catskills region, centered on a shift toward digital advertising and away from the print ads and trade shows that have historically driven the agency’s outreach, according to Liam Mayo of The River Reporter.

Fewer Day-Trippers, More Overnight Guests

The underlying logic is simple: the further away a visitor comes from, the longer they tend to stay — and longer stays mean more money flowing into the local economy through lodging taxes, restaurant bills, and retail spending.

Martellon was also eager to clarify where the SCVA’s money comes from in the first place. As Mayo explained, “He really emphasized that the SCVA doesn’t get tax dollars that are generated on people who are living and working in the county. The SCVA is funded fully through the lodging tax that is collected on hotel rooms and Airbnb stays in the county.”

Martellon said the county currently sits at about a 25% annual occupancy rate across its hotels, inns, and short-term rentals. Nudging that number up even modestly, he argued, could translate to significant revenue gains. A jump to 30% occupancy, he projected, would generate roughly $2.69 million in additional sales and lodging tax revenue. A climb to 40% — a figure he said he achieved over eight years while leading tourism efforts in Telluride, Colorado — could mean $8 million more, with $5.6 million of that coming through sales tax alone.

He acknowledged the figures are projections, not guarantees.

Showing Up on ChatGPT, Not Just Google

To attract those distant visitors, Martellon said the SCVA plans to invest heavily in what he’s calling “generative AI engine optimization” — making sure Sullivan County appears when someone asks ChatGPT or Google Gemini where to vacation, not just when they type a query into a traditional search engine. He also described plans to build out a direct digital marketing infrastructure, allowing the SCVA to reach potential visitors without relying solely on broad media buys.

The approach is supported by early data. A campaign the agency ran this past December and January showed interest from well beyond the tri-state area. “Some of the sites were other places in the Northeast like Hartford, New Haven, Connecticut, Boston, Massachusetts,” Mayo noted. “But there were some sites further afield in there as well, like Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Orlando, Florida and St. Louis, Missouri.”

Mark Baez, president and CEO of the Sullivan County Partnership for Economic Development, backed the direction, noting that digital-first strategies have become essential for both tourism promotion and economic development broadly.

Not Everyone Is Fully Convinced

The pivot away from traditional marketing drew some questions from legislators. Mayo described a notable back-and-forth between Martellon and Legislator Cap Scott: “She was asking for more of a specific report on what the SCVA was doing sort of to increase tourism on a day-to-day basis. And he was saying, ‘I’m trying to focus on the overall direction — focusing on tactics is getting a little bit too much in the weeds.'”

The concern from lawmakers, Mayo said, was straightforward: “Yes, we’re all about the digital, yes, we’re all about this new direction, but let’s make sure that we’re not transitioning too quickly away from what we were doing before we know quite what we are doing.”

Grant Program Gets a Reset

Lawmakers also received an update on the SCVA’s tourism event grant program, which Martellon has restructured since taking the helm.

When he first arrived, Martellon froze all pending grants — including some that had already been promised to county businesses. After conversations with affected business owners, those were ultimately released. But the episode set the stage for a broader rethinking of how the grants would work.

Under the new model, the SCVA received $1.6 million in funding requests and awarded $150,000. As Mayo put it, the new philosophy boils down to this: “We gave less money to a lot more people.” The grants are now framed explicitly as marketing dollars — the SCVA will cover up to 20% of an event’s marketing budget, but it’s not in the business of funding entire events.

The second round of SCVA grants is currently open. Information sessions run March 16 through March 26, and the application deadline is April 14. More information is available at sullivancatskills.com.

Image: Michael Martelon, president and CEO of the Sullivan Catskills Visitors Association, addresses the Sullivan County Legislature on March 5, 2026. (Liam Mayo)