By Mike Benjamin
Oswego, NY – The re-naming of a state tourism region means some Central New Yorkers aren't actually "Central New Yorkers."
The region made up of Broome, Chenango, Madison, Montgomery, Oneida, Otsego and Schoharie counties used to be called the Central Leatherstocking region. For tourism purposes the state has now designated that region "Central New York."
Several other counties are traditionally considered part of Central New York. However those counties are officially recognized as parts of separate tourism regions. For example, Onondaga County is part of the Finger Lakes tourism region, while Oswego and Jefferson counties are part of the Thousand Islands Seaway region.
Janet Clerkin is a spokeswoman for the Oswego County Tourism Office. She explains that tourism regions have more to do with common resources than geography.
"We are part of the Thousand Islands Seaway region. There are times that we reflect that designation but more often we're promoting and emphasizing the recreational activities and resources we have so we don't really look at it as a geographic boarder," said Clerkin, "its more the resources we want to emphasize and the activities that we want to emphasize to bring people here."
Clerkin does not think the name change will affect tourism in Oswego County or any other counties traditionally thought of being Central New York. She said tourism regions are simply used to attract tourists based on their interests. She said the name change for the new Central New York likely resulted from the difficulty of remembering the Central Leatherstocking name.