Are Adirondack tourism businesses and retailers naughty or nice?

Adirondackers have always had a love-hate relationship with tourism and the entire hospitality industry.

And it’s an ambivalence that all too often we carry just below the surface.

The other day I walked into a tourism business — I won’t say which one or where — and the person behind the desk didn’t look up.

The person kept doing paperwork. Not a nod, not a raised finger, not a “Be with you in just a minute.” Silence.

Curious, I decided to wait, saying nothing, to see how long the standoff might last.

Honestly, it wasn’t very long. Twenty seconds maybe?

But in the hospitality biz IGNORING someone for twenty seconds is risky.

Finally, the person looked up at me and smiled and helped me with what I needed. But the impression had been made.

I wouldn’t mention this anecdote if it weren’t an experience that I have far more often than is healthy for our regional economy.

For better or worse, pampering outsiders is a big part of what we do here. We offer them an escape from their everyday, urban, sharp-elbowed lives.

We are, to some extent, creating an illusion. A fantasy that in this gorgeous, rustic place people are just a little bit nicer, a little bit more warm and welcoming.

Fortunately, that kind of experience is something tourists and second homeowners are willing to pay a lot for. As in, billions of dollars in visitor and real estate dollars.

Unfortunately, the deal means we have to put our game-faces on. We have to pretend, even on bad days, that we’re happy to help, eager to please, ready to make a new friend.

My instinct is that we need to get better at this.

We need to offer better soft-skills training to local workers.

We need to find ways to offer pay and benefits that keep our workers healthy and happy enough that they can pass on the love.

Otherwise, people will go elsewhere — Vermont? New Hampshire — to get their fix of the good life.

A lot of Adirondack businesses are hiring foreign kids, perky souls willing to work for peanuts, but that strikes me as unsustainable and kind of an admission of failure.

If we’re to be a tourism destination, our people have to be part of it.

So what do you think? Should we learn to make nice? Are you a tourism entrepreneur struggling to keep a a smile on your face?

Comments welcome below.