MIDDLETOWN – Orange County’s Office of Economic Development held its second annual economic summit Friday at SUNY Orange Middletown campus, and the gathering of elected officials and business leaders focused on the
filmmaking industry and tourism.
Those two industries are transformational for the county, said Economic Development Director Steven Gross, who coordinated the event and served as emcee. They have “undeniably become catalysts for economic prosperity, cultural development and social growth” in the county.
Orange County has many reasons to visit. There are rolling hills, open space, agriculture, the Hudson River and many cultural and recreational attractions for any taste.
There are also six film studios in an emerging industry here, and Orange County Executive Steve Neuhaus said it’s important for job creation.
“Absolutely critical. The industry has absolutely exploded. It’s employing hundreds, if not thousands of people. It’s something we need to cultivate,” he said. “Every one of our film studios right now is completely booked for 2024.”
Neuhaus has been touring them recently, including some under construction.
Orange County native Josiah Brown, a destination management and marketing professional, said this is a new era for tourism.
He said there is a “generational shift” noting in previous generations, people worked and when they retired, they began to “see the world” through travel. Now, millennials are traveling four to five trips a year for 18 to 30-year-olds, he said.
Brown said in the past, the industry was primarily built on family travel and retiree travel. “All of a sudden, every single member of the world is wanting to travel two, three, four, five times a year,” he said. “Everybody starts traveling now and we entered an economy that was now being built in many destinations on the visitor economy.”
He said now millennials are “settling down where they love to visit.”
